Unpublished data survey mapped more than 78,000 hectares of aquaculture production in the country
Embrapa mapped, with satellite images, more than 78,000 hectares of ponds excavated for aquaculture production in Brazil. The research generated an unprecedented database in the country, with the location and boundaries of 48,500 sets of nurseries – called batteries. In each State, the municipalities that account for approximately 75% of production were analyzed. The study area covers 513 municipalities.
During the mapping work, the Embrapa team found differences in spatial concentration, as well as in production structure across the country. At the Paraná, the largest producer of farmed fish, the batteries of nurseries are very concentrated in the western region. They are more dispersed throughout the territory in Rio Grande do Sul (image below), where the largest number of them was found, 9,000. Rondôniawhich occupies the third position in the ranking, had the largest mapped area of nurseries: 12,500 hectares.
According to the leader of the projects that financed the mapping of nurseries, Marta Ummusfrom the Embrapa Fishing and Aquaculture (TO), “The resources coming from different sources of funding allowed the development of an important and unprecedented product for Brazilian aquaculture and, now, efforts must be directed to the automatic mapping of these features for the purpose of monitoring the activity”.
Identifying nursery batteries in the 930,000 km² of the municipalities studied was not an easy task for Embrapa’s geoprocessing and remote sensing group involved in the project. The different sizes and shapes of the structures required a combination of mapping strategies.
“This is the 1st work that deals with a systematic mapping of nurseries excavated in Brazil. Few references were found, even internationally. Many works depict only point-scale experiments. A mapping of the entire country, with the territorial dimensions that Brazil has, did not exist”reports Lucíola MagalhãesDeputy Head of Research and Development at Embrapa Territorial (SP).
“Aquaculture has different production contexts. Shrimp production, on the coast of Rio Grande do Norte, uses large tanks and it is common to find them close to structures for salt production. When you analyze aquaculture in Paraná, you find small properties, with 4 or 5 small nurseries, often associated with grain production. In the North region, it is also different, many cultivated species are native, the method of damming the water is different”notes the analyst Andre Fariasfrom Embrapa Territorial.
“This diversity is typical of the aquaculture activity and it is natural because the geographical contexts are different, as well as the cultivated species, the management, the objective. This is expressed in the territory and, therefore, to map the whole of Brazil, there is a great challenge”, complete.
HOW IT WAS DONE
The work used 2018 images from the MSI multispectral sensor of the Sentinel-2 satellite as a basis, with medium spatial resolution (10 meters). They were geoprocessed to identify the points in the territory that could correspond to bodies of water, based on the calculation of the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). The problem is that this processing cannot differentiate from water other objects that absorb light, such as shadow regions and roofs.
The team then scanned the highlighted areas to visually identify which of the objects selected by geoprocessing could actually correspond to excavated pond batteries. For this, it also used high spatial resolution images from different satellites, in search of elements commonly present in aquaculture production areas, such as aerators and sheds for storing feed and equipment. “Aerator is a key element: when we can visualize it, and this is only possible in high resolution images, we are sure that it is aquaculture”says Farias.
Part of the collected data was validated in the office, by crossing with other spatial databases. Information provided by state environmental licensing agencies and technical assistance and rural extension agencies was used, in addition to data from the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry), mandatory electronic public registration for all rural properties in the country. The method used is described in the technical publication Mapping of excavated ponds for aquaculture in Brazil by remote sensing.
joining forces
The identification of municipalities responsible for at least 75% of aquaculture production in each state was carried out using data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). For the coordinator of agricultural statistics at the institute, Octávio Costa de Oliveira, the expectation is that now the opposite path can also be taken, with mapping directing the work of census takers and the PPM (Municipal Livestock Survey), carried out annually. “If I manage to identify, prior to the census work, where there may be productive units, this can guarantee better census coverage”exemplifies.
The collection of information on aquaculture by the IBGE is recent. The first data were recorded in the 2006 Agricultural Census. In 2013, the activity became part of the PPM and thus counted on annual numbers of production volume and value. But gathering data on a production chain that is still under development is a challenge, in Oliveira’s assessment. “We need to have instruments to identify the nurseries excavated annually, faster and that allows us to spatialize the production. [O mapeamento] It is a very important job”points.
“Aquaculture is a spatial and dynamic phenomenon. By ‘putting it on the map’, we are showing where this phenomenon is taking place, what path it has taken so far and what its possible development scenarios will be. In this way, we contribute to increasing accuracy in decision-making processes, mainly for the formulation of public policies”contextualizes Marta Ummus.
IN SEARCH OF PARTNERS
The database with the mapping of excavated nurseries is an asset aimed at Embrapa partnerships. The product presents the location and vectored boundaries of each set of ponds, as well as validation information. “There is an opportunity to associate other variables to the mapping, carry out analyzes and generate new products. We are looking for partners in the public and private sectors”says the analyst Marcelo Fonsecafrom Embrapa Territorial. “If we consider the chain as a whole, this type of product can guide territorial development plans, environmental licensing, traceability, certification, national statistics, for example”explains Magalhães.
The asset is already part of an initiative by 3 Brazilian institutions with the University of cornell (United States), to assess the carbon footprint and impacts of expanding aquaculture in the Amazon. It has also provided information to the FAO/UN (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and served as the basis for studies requested by the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, to define areas to receive pilot projects for the sector. Embrapa Territorial is still working on the development of algorithms to automate the mapping of aquaculture by remote sensing and expand it to the whole of Brazil.
CONSTANTLY CHANGING CHAIN
In Brazil, aquaculture has been growing solidly in recent years. The greater professionalization of the productive value chain, access to technologies and organized data and information, as well as advances in legislation at the state and national levels, contribute to this positive scenario.
In particular, fish farming has stood out. The numbers prove the good moment of the activity. According to the last yearbook of the Brazilian Association of Pisciculture, in 2022, the sector’s revenue was around BRL 9 billion. More than 860 thousand tons of fish were produced, with the usual emphasis on tilapia, which accounted for about 64% of this volume.
Analyzing the figures released by the association over the last 9 years, one can see the growth in fish production in the country. The 2014 numbers indicated almost 579 thousand tons. Therefore, there was an increase of more than 48.5% between 2014 and 2022. Also according to Peixe BR, fish farming generates approximately 3 million direct and indirect jobs in the country.
FINANCING PROJECTS
The mapping of the excavated ponds is the result of 2 projects: Strategic Territorial Intelligence System for Aquaculture in Brazil, which is funded by the Amazon Fund and operated by BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change; It is BRS Aquafunded with resources from the BNDES Technological Fund of the company’s own Embrapafrom the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, an appeal executed by CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), and the Map (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock).
Also with resources from BRS Aqua, in addition to other initiatives, Embrapa launched, in 2021, the geoweb of the Aquaculture Strategic Territorial Intelligence System. Built from a geographic information system, the platform can be accessed on the web and allows viewing, on the map of Brazil, hundreds of data regarding the aquaculture segment, organized in 6 tables: aquaculture, natural, agrarian, agricultural, of infrastructure and socioeconomic.
With information from Embrapa.
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