30 JUNE 2022 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG would not be competitive in terms of feed use efficiency when gauged against broiler chicken farming, given current pricing of standard extruded tilapia grower feeds at a cost of R14/kg ex-factory in South Africa. The solution to the local sub-optimal climate for productive and efficient tilapia culture, high feed costs (extruded feed for tilapia costs around R14/kg for a 28-32 percent grower ration) and lack of the benefits of economies-of-scale calls for a more determined, targeted and sophisticated response to solve these peculiar challenges. THAPI Aqua-Kulcha sees large-scale professionally managed majority worker co-owned scalable sustainable intensification of the tilapia farming sector, emulating certain elements of the highly successful broiler farming model, adapted for local sub-optimal climatic conditions and the use of BFT as key to the success of an efficient and competitive tilapia culture sector in South Africa. The new marine tilapia industry proposed by the THAPI Marine Tilapia Industry Vision 2035 at scale producing 20,000 t of tilapia per cluster potentially offers the least-cost animal protein source in South Africa (Fig. 6) at farm-gate break-even costs as low as R15/kg (U$1/kg) live weight at the base of the value chain after the attainment of the benefits of scale- and scope economies and specialization based upon long-run costs at today’s input prices tilapia farms at elevations >500 m above sea level and outside the warmer east coast and low elevation inland sites (still climatically sub-optimal for efficient tilapia culture for water temperatures above 25 C for more than three months of the year), 3) the use of inappropriate production technology for low-cost and scalable production viz. intensive pond farming and RAS and, 5) lack of scale and scope economies of operations (THAPI Aqua-Kulcha 2021b). The future large-scale farmed production of Mozambique tilapia in seawater, or marine-farmed tilapia using BFT, applying today’s costs and pricing in 2021 clearly represents potentially the least-cost animal meat protein source in South Africa (Figs. 6 and 7). Comparing Tilapia with Broiler Chicken Production Figure 7 provides an accounting of the efficiency of feed use in BFT tilapia aquaculture as compared to intensive pond farming and the use of a RAS in tilapia aquaculture versus broiler chicken farming. BFT tilapia production competes favourably against broiler chicken farming in terms of feed use efficiency accounting on both a live weight and edible meat yield basis. Tilapia culture using either intensive ponds (> 7 t/ha yr) or RAS tilapia production technology FIGURE 8. Prime areas for tilapia culture in South Africa are at elevations <500 m above sea level along the east coast and inland low-lying regions. FIGURE 9. Small-scale irrigated agroforestry/regenerative farmer feedstock development program to support the THAPI Marine Tilapia Industry Vision 2035 for the production of aquatic feeds to feed marine tilapia.
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