Biofloc Systems for Sustainable Production of Economically Important Aquatic Species: A Review

Muziri Mugwanya, Mahmoud A. O. Dawood, Fahad Kimera and Hani Sewilam
Additional contact information
Muziri Mugwanya: Center for Applied Research on the Environment and Sustainability, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt
Mahmoud A. O. Dawood: Center for Applied Research on the Environment and Sustainability, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt
Fahad Kimera: Center for Applied Research on the Environment and Sustainability, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt
Hani Sewilam: Center for Applied Research on the Environment and Sustainability, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: The increasing global population has led to an increase in food demand; consequently, aquaculture is one of the food production sectors that has offered opportunities to alleviate hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. However, the development of a sustainable aquaculture industry has been hindered by the limited availability of natural resources as well as its negative impact on the surrounding environment. Hence, there is an urgent need to search for better aquacultural production systems that, despite their high productivity and profitability, utilize fewer resources such as water, energy, land, and capital in conjunction with a negligible impact on the environment. Biofloc technology (BFT) is one of the most exciting and promising sustainable aquaculture systems; it takes into account the intensive culture of aquatic species, zero water exchange, and improved water quality as a result of beneficial microbial biomass activity, which, at the same time, can be utilized as a nutritious aquaculture feed, thus lowering the costs of production. Furthermore, BFT permits the installation of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems in which the wastes of one organism are utilized as feed by another organism, without a detrimental effect on co-cultured species. This review, therefore, highlights the basics of BFT, factors associated with BFT for the successful production of aquatic species, the significance of this food production system for the sustainable production of economically important aquatic species, its economic aspects, drawbacks, limitations, and recommended management aspects for sustainable aquaculture.

Keywords: biofloc technology; aquaculture; integrated multi-trophic aquaculture; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7255/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/13/7255/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:13:p:7255-:d:584376

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().