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REVIEW article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Aquatic Foods
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1412919

Potential of Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) to Make Prawn Farming Sustainable in Bangladesh

Provisionally accepted
Md. Mehedi Alam Md. Mehedi Alam 1Niels O. Jørgensen Niels O. Jørgensen 2David Bass David Bass 3Morena Santi Morena Santi 3Max Nielsen Max Nielsen 4Md. Asadur Rahman Md. Asadur Rahman 1Neaz A. Hasan Neaz A. Hasan 5Alif Layla Bablee Alif Layla Bablee 6Abul Bashar Abul Bashar 6Md. Ismail Hossain Md. Ismail Hossain 7Lars H. Hansen Lars H. Hansen 2Mohammad Mahfujul Haque Mohammad Mahfujul Haque 6*
  • 1 Department of Fishery Resources Conservation and Management, Khulna Agricultural University, Khulna, Khulna, Bangladesh
  • 2 Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
  • 3 International Centre of Excellence for Aquatic Animal Health, Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), Weymouth, United Kingdom
  • 4 Department of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
  • 5 Department of Fisheries and Marine Bioscience, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh
  • 6 Department of Aquaculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 7 Department of Fisheries Technology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Farmed freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) and black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) comprise a significant portion of Bangladesh's seafood exports, raising concerns about their environmental impacts. Freshwater prawn farms, which require a relatively higher amount of feed supply, release 1.0 MT CO2-equivalents/year, equating to 18.8 kg CO2e/MT prawn, contributing significantly to global warming and climate change risks. Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) offers an alternative farming method to conventional prawn farming systems, as it minimizes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change impacts. Systematically reviewing 112 scientific articles on IMTA, this article offers recommendations for adopting IMTA to promote sustainable freshwater prawn farming in Bangladesh. IMTA is undergoing extensive experimentation and practice in many parts of the world, offering economic benefits, social acceptability, and environmental sustainability. In addition to native prawn species, various indigenous organic extractive freshwater mollusks, and inorganic extractive plants are available which can seamlessly be used to tailor the IMTA system. Extractive organisms, including aquatic mollusks and plants within prawn farms, can capture blue carbon effectively lowering GHG emissions and helping mitigate climate change impacts. Aquatic mollusks offer feed for fish and livestock, while aquatic plants serve as a dual food source and contribute to compost manure production for crop fields. Research on IMTA in Bangladesh was primarily experimented on finfish in freshwater ponds, with the absence of studies on IMTA in prawn farms. This necessitates conducting research at the prawn farmer level to understand the production of extractive aquatic mollusk and plants alongside prawn in the prawn-producing regions of southwestern Bangladesh.

    Keywords: Font: Italic Deleted: P 52 Deleted: (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture, prawn farming, GHG emission, climate change, sustainability, Bangladesh Deleted: , palatable, a Conceptualization, methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Roles/Writingoriginal draft, Writingreview & editing. NOGJ: Conceptualization, Writingreview & editing. DB: Conceptualization, Writingreview & editing. MS: Methodology

    Received: 11 Apr 2024; Accepted: 19 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Alam, Jørgensen, Bass, Santi, Nielsen, Rahman, Hasan, Bablee, Bashar, Hossain, Hansen and Haque. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mohammad Mahfujul Haque, Department of Aquaculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.