Supporting the Aquaculture of the World’s Largest Archipelago (Indonesia)

By: Angkasa Putra*

Indonesia itself has the largest aquaculture production potential in the world. Based on data from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (2021), since 2010 aquaculture production, has exceeded capture fisheries production. Until 2019, aquaculture contributed about 68.4% of Indonesia’s total fishery production, with an average growth of 16% per year during 2000-2019.

Indonesia the World’s Largest

Archipelago Indonesia with a strategic geographical position is the largest archipelagic state in the world. The number of islands in Indonesia officially recorded has reached 16,056 islands as determined at the United Nations Conferences on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) and United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) forums (7-18 August 2017) in New York, United States of America.

“In another reference (Hargo, 2017) it is stated that based on the identification results there are 17,508 islands throughout Indonesia (7,353 named islands and 10,155 unnamed islands) and of the 7,353 named islands, there are 67 islands directly bordering neighboring countries.”

The coastline of Indonesia is 99,093 km2 (BIG, 2017), the second in the world after Canada. Its land area reaches about 2,012 million km2 and the sea is about 5.8 million km2 (75.7%), 2.7 million square kilometers of which are included in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (Ramadhan & Arifin, 2013).

It has 275.77 million people (as of the middle of this year based on BPS, 2022) where most of them live in coastal areas. State control over Indonesia’s seas needs to be balanced between ecological, economic, and social sustainability.

Aquaculture & Its Role

Several references state that Indonesia is already ranked among the most productive countries in aquaculture production.

Aquaculture has an important role in the development of many national economies and plays a key role in rural development. In the definition provided by the FAO, aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic organisms including fish, mollusk, crustaceans, and aquatic plants. This field implies some kind of intervention in the rearing process to increase production, such as regular stocking, feeding, or protection from predators.

“Also implies individual or corporate ownership of the shares being processed. Further, aquaculture is the aquatic partner of agriculture; it has developed rapidly in recent decades. Aquaculture is the primary means of obtaining more food from our aquatic environment in the future.”

The impact of aquaculture on biodiversity arises from the consumption of resources, such as soil (or space), water, seeds, and feed, their transformation into products valued by society, and their subsequent release into the environment of greenhouse gases and waste from uneaten food, feces, and urinary products, chemotherapy as well as microorganisms, parasites, and wild animals.

On the one hand, aquaculture is an economic activity that uses and converts natural water resources into commodities that are valued by society and thus can have an impact on biodiversity, basically due to resource consumption, the process of its own transformation, and the production of waste.

Indonesia and Aquaculture

Global marine capture fisheries production has stagnated (leveling-off), around 90 million tons/year, since the late 1990s (FAO, 2022). In addition, the development of livestock and agriculture is also constrained by conversion of agricultural land to other land uses, pollution, environmental degradation of terrestrial ecosystems, and social conflicts.

Indonesia itself has the largest aquaculture production potential in the world. Based on data from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (2021), since 2010 aquaculture production, has exceeded capture fisheries production. Until 2019, aquaculture contributed about 68.4% of Indonesia’s total fishery production, with an average growth of 16% per year during 2000-2019.

“In the previous data, aquaculture production increased from 994,962 tons (2000) to 1.4 million tons (2004) or increased at a rate of 10.36 percent per year (Central Research Institute for Aquaculture).”

On the one side, since 2009 Indonesia has become the 2nd largest aquaculture producer in the world, as well as in 2019 according to FAO (2021) regarding the top 10 Global Aquaculture Producers in 2019 with a value of 15,893,400 tons; 13.23%, after China which is in first place (68,423,859 tons; 56.97%), and India in third place (7,800,300 tons; 6.49%).

Furthermore, related to Indonesian Aquaculture Production data based on Main Commodities from 2016 to 2020 (tons) (Source: Data of Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia), the following data are presented (Table 1).

Then, the projection of Indonesian Aquaculture Production 2020- 2024 (tons) based on data from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia in 2021 can be seen in the Table 2.

Furthermore, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia data (2022) shows that the potential land for Indonesian aquaculture for seawater cultivation is about 12.1 million hectares, brackish water cultivation is about 2.9 million hectares and fresh water cultivation is about 2.8 million hectares.

And targeted this year: Fish: 7.35 million tons, Shrimp: 1.34 million tons, Ornamental Fish: 2.1 million fish, eaweed: 11.85 million tons, Revenue: 3.55 miles/month, and Fish Farmer Exchange Index: 103. So it can be concluded that aquaculture is Indonesia’s mainstay in the Marine and Fisheries Sector and globally in the Maritime Sector. With a note, productivity must be increased, be responsible, environmentally friendly, and also sustainable.

Potential Intervention & Development of Indonesian Aquaculture Innovation

In other research results, for example from WorldFish (2019), it is stated that looking at the current value of aquaculture production can be a reference so that an estimate of the contribution to each product group throughout the Indonesian archipelago and its ecological status can be made.

In the following, research data from WorldFish is presented by looking at the potential for aquaculture interventions and innovations in several categories that will enable the aquaculture sector to grow without compromising the environment.

Growing the aquaculture sector without causing negative effects on the environment is a noble goal. This can be realized through the implementation of sustainable cultivation practices that do not endanger the function of coastal ecosystems. More commonly known as blue economy.

Furthermore, if the implementation of sustainable aquaculture can be realized, then fundamentally contribute to the welfare of the Indonesian people by offering an affordable source of nutritious animal protein.

Moreover, the Indonesian government has set ambitious targets for aquaculture growth by 2030 one of the goals is to combat high rates of malnutrition and stunting.

Angkasa Putra, S.Tr.Pi., IPP., CPGAM. President of South-East Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Student Association (SEAFAS