Project Overview
Commodities
- Animals: fish
Practices
- Animal Production: feed/forage, housing, watering systems
- Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
- Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities
Proposal summary:
To help meet the growing demand for tilapia, Troy Fiaui, mayor of the villages of Amaua, Auto and Alega on the eastern end of Tutuila, American Samoa, will harness his Farmer/Rancher grant to develop a model grow-out facility incorporating sustainable aqua-agriculture practices.
Fiaui, a member of the American Samoa Sunfish Tilapia Cooperative since its inception, will convert an existing facility into a demonstration site for greenwater aquaculture, a practice that relies on little water flow and constant algae growth in the fish culture water. The method reduces water, land and feed requirements and provides supplemental oxygen and biological filtration of fish waste. The waste will flow directly to patches of taro and bananas to demonstrate the best management practices with effluent treatment.
Fiaui and his technical advisor, John Gonzales, aquaculture extension agent with American Samoa Community College, will conduct several workshops to extend the knowledge to others.