With constant increase in production over the past 30 years, aquaculture has become a major issue for development and food security, particularly in tropical regions where the impacts of global change are most felt. In South-East Asia as in Africa, the increase demand for cultured fish is leading to an intensification of farming practices. Despite the very different contexts, aquaculture practices in both regions need to evolve towards sustainability. Such evolution is an environmental, economic and nutritional challenge for many rural families. Increasing sustainability in aquaculture is intended toward innovative agroecological practices, mobilization of ecological functionalities, optimization of natural processes and common and efficient management of resources and sanitary risks.
The ASACHA GDRI-Sud (https://asacha-gdri.com/) aims to facilitate agroecological transition in the South promoting scientific multidisciplinarity for the sustainability of aquaculture in a context of global changes. ASACHA GDRI-Sud is at the interface of issues related to food security, sustainability of aquaculture production systems, and training, thus responding to 8 SDGs. These issues call upon complementary disciplines that interact in a complex framework and are at the heart of the ISEM-AQUABIOS team’s program developed with its partners in the South and the North.
ASACHA GDRI-Sud aims to i) structure scientific activities between the complementary disciplines involved with the partners from the South and the North, ii) strengthen South-South relationships, by federating academic and socio-economic actors on the issues of aquaculture sustainability and agroecological transition, and iii) intensify training in the South. Thus, the aim of the group is to improve the integration of knowledge and skills acquired by scientists and stakeholders in tropical aquaculture. The group aim also to develop a shared approach for the ecological intensification of aquaculture and the promotion of ecosystem integration in different socio-ecological contexts.