Aquaculture Case Study

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Aquaculture is the fastest growing food-producing sector and contributes to nearly half the fish consumed globally (NICRA 2009). It supplies jobs and food and also helps maintain steady fish prices (FAO 2010). Chinese aquaculture is an industry leader and is responsible for a majority of the global aquaculture production. Freshwater aquaculture areas in China increased from 2.37 million hectares in 1979 to 5.72 million hectares in 2012. This parallels fish production growth, which increased from 0.81 million tons in 1979 to 24.71 million tons in 2012. Continued growth is expected as the country proceeds along its developmental trajectory (Delgado 2003).

Agriculture and fisheries both are heavily dependent on specific weather conditions. …show more content…

There have been limited studies on the possible effects of climate change on aquaculture because climate change issues have not been considered a priority in the aquaculture sector. Nevertheless, understanding the mechanisms through which climate change may influence aquaculture production systems is essential. This understanding will enable the appropriate design of policies and management strategies in the aquaculture sector. Arnason (2003) concludes that climate change impacts on marine fisheries may be viewed in at least two different ways: as altering the availability of fish to fishermen (direct impact) and as changing the price and availability of fish products and fishery inputs (indirect impact). A similar distinction is made for aquaculture with direct and indirect impacts being discussed separately in order to bring more clarity to the pathways involved(Brooks 2003; Brooks et al. …show more content…

2003; Deschênes et al. 2011; Lobell et al. 2011; Schlenker et al. 2006; Schlenker et al. 2008). These studies estimated the relationship between weather and crop yields by incorporating economic variables with different levels of disaggregation of data. They reached mixed conclusions about the impact of climate change on agricultural yields. For example, Welch et al. (2010) incorporated both climate and economic variables, such as crop and input prices, to isolate the effects of temperature on rice yields in tropical/subtropical Asia. Findings showed that rice yields are sensitive to changes in minimum and maximum temperatures over the growing season. McCarl et al. (2008) discovered that a change in precipitation has no significant impact on corn and soybean yields, which is in opposition to Deschênes and Greenstone 's (2007) results that an increase in precipitation is beneficial for corn and soybean

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