Food & Climate
The aquaculture sector in Egypt is subjected to several threats caused by climate change, including a considerable decline in Nile River flow, the sea level rise with the risk of inundation, salty-water intrusion, and the loss of productive farms besides increases in temperatures and decreased water supplies, according to a new study.
Due to other urgent issues in Egypt, such as rising food and living expenses and decreased land productivity along the coast.
The study was conducted by department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden, Institute of Graduate Studies and Research (IGSR), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt, and Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
This study, which seen by “Food & Climate” platform, aims to highlight climate change impacts on Egyptian aquaculture food systems considering the three sustainability pillars: environmental, economic, and social.
The aquaculture sector in Egypt is the largest in Africa
The aquaculture sector in Egypt is the largest in Africa, the third globally in tilapia production and the sixth in global aquaculture output in 2022.
Total aquaculture production in Egypt exceeds 1.6 million metric tons, valued at $3.5 billion. Aquaculture sector in Egypt is the largest single source of fish supply in the African country, accounting for nearly 80% of total fish production, making it a major contributor to food security and boosting the national economy.
Although farming takes place in both freshwater and marine, freshwater farming is far more successful than marine aquaculture in Egypt. This is due to that the majority of marine farming still depends on the collection of seed from the wild and the main farmed species are European seabass, gilthead seabream, sole, meagre and penaeid shrimp.
On the other hand, the freshwater farming in Egypt cultivates 14 different species of finfish and two species of crustacean, ten are native and six are introduced species.
Nile tilapia is widely favorable in Egypt and its yield accounts for 75.5% of national aquaculture production reaching 9.5 million tons in 2020, placing Egypt as the third largest worldwide producer of tilapia after China and Indonesia. The remaining 24.5% of Egyptian aquaculture production are mainly Mullets, Carps, Catfish and other, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 2022.
Despite the high aquaculture yield, Egypt does not export its seafood due to the high rate of self-consumption. Fish has been a longstanding traditional component of the Egyptian diet since the time of the ancient Pharaohs and recently it is the main source of animal protein for lower-income groups. Per capita, fish consumption has nearly tripled in the last three decades. At the same time, Egypt is one of the most populated countries in Africa, its total population exceeds 112 million individuals.
The availability of water resources
The availability of water resources is becoming one of the most significant economic and social issues of the century, according to the study.
Egypt is situated in an arid to semi-arid geographical zone. River Nile is the main source of water, providing about 95% of the water supply to Egypt. Limited Egyptian water resources influence the quantity and quality of water available for fish farming.
The use of Nile water for aquaculture is prohibited; instead, fish farms are mostly dependent on Egyptian lakes for their waters (mainly brackish) or else in some other cases farmers depend on poor-quality groundwater and agricultural drainage systems. Poor-quality water causes declining fish production, and increases disease outbreaks. Water withdrawal for fish framing from lakes can put pressure on the lake ecosystem as in in case of Wadi Rayan lakes in Fayoum province. Therefore, it is important to give more attention to how the expansion of aquaculture farming in Egypt would affect natural fisheries and water withdrawals.
Furthermore, climate change impacts can cause changes in water availability, a decrease in water quality, salty-water intrusion as a result of rising sea levels, and salinization of groundwater supplies which can threaten inland freshwater aquaculture. Aquaculture activities in desert areas depend on groundwater, there are 20 commercial aquaculture farms operating in Egypt’s desert regions with a total of 893 hectares, which produce roughly 13,000 tons of Tilapia annually.
At the same time, high temperatures caused by climate change can lead to reduced dissolved oxygen levels, increased salinity, greater maturity at a younger age, increased fish metabolic rates, increased risk of disease spread, increased fish mortality, changes in the fish sex ratio, disturbance in spawning season and, consequently, decreased fish production.
In recent years, the majority of existing Egyptian fish farms have expanded rapidly at the expense of wetlands and coastal sand dunes in the Nile Delta region, these farms are centered around the Delta Lakes Burullus (31%), Manzala (44%) and Idku (15%), as well as the area situated between Gamasa and Damietta (10%). They reached a total production of 200,000 MT in 2020.
The Nile Delta region is highly vulnerable to marine erosion, and previous studies record a retreat in the shoreline, reaching about 21 m/year in some areas, caused by the lack of sediment after the construction of the High Dam in Aswan in the 1960s, according to the study which published in “Frontier“.