Tanzania has embraced the potential of mariculture as an important source of livelihood and enhanced economic development for both coastal communities and the country. The main mariculture sector is seaweed with a production of ca. 170,000 tons (FW) employing about 30,000 farmers and small-scale processors. Other mariculture sectors are finfish, sea cucumbers, and some crab fattening activities. However, the future of this sector is severely hampered by climate change that results in occurrence of diseases and pests that cause declines in production and quality of the mariculture organisms.
One of the interventions proposed is Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA), which involves farming of two or more organisms from different trophic levels in the same production system to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and provide ecosystem services. IMTA is an idea that has been experimented upon in Tanzania since the 1990s. Such IMTA experiments include culturing finfish, shellfish and seaweed in earthen ponds, tank cultures of seaweed with shellfish, sea cucumbers and halophytes, and culturing seaweed and sea cucumbers. While most interventions were conducted in small-scale settings, a recent intervention involves culturing of seaweed and sea cucumber at a commercial scale in a community-based set up.
With these kinds of efforts, can IMTA be indeed the future sustainability endeavour for the Tanzanian mariculture sector? In this presentation, the different approaches will be explained with results of their feasibility as future IMTA interventions. Considerations of the technologies used and production volumes, as well as value of the produced organisms as food and source of revenue for the coastal communities will be presented.
Key words: Mariculture, seaweed, fish, sea cucumber, integration