Indonesia is piloting varying disease management methods for farmed shrimp, tilapia, and pangasius, with eFishery, the University of Prince Edward Island, and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) joining together to improve aquaculture efficiencies through data analysis on disease trends.
The Sustainable Trade Initiative works to promote “the application of epidemiology in tropical aquaculture by linking producers and data companies to epidemiological institutions,” according to an IDH press release. Currently, the project seeks to increase the efficiencies of 1,000 aquaculture operations in West Java, Indonesia.
Once they’ve acquired access to farm data through the project, companies can receive epidemiology expert advice on mitigating diseases in their operations and search for disease trends. The latest project developments, spurred through the partnership with eFishery and the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), are unique and add “to our understanding of how epidemiology can strengthen tropical aquaculture,” IDH said.
“This project represents another milestone in our journey to make tropical aquaculture more data-driven and efficient. By collaborating with eFishery and UPEI we can combine the capability of the eFishery smart feeders and intelligence platform with population health expertise. This will generate more robust knowledge and recommendations that farmers can use to combat diseases and improve farm performance,” added Flavio Corsin, a trained aquatic epidemiologist who serves as the aquaculture director of IDH.
Indonesia-based company eFishery provides an Internet of Things (IoT) solution and data platform for fish and shrimp farming businesses, with the startup’s farm management platform and automated feeder allowing aquaculture operations to monitor data and feeding schedules. The firm’s contribution to the project with IDH and UPEI aligns with its overarching mission to tackle some of Indonesia’s greatest aquaculture challenges, said Gibran Huzaifah, the company’s CEO.
"For decades, feed and disease are two of the biggest issues for aquaculture farmers in Indonesia,” Huzaifah said. “Started as smart feeding technology to solve the feed problem, eFishery has always been driven to solve other challenges using data and technology, especially where there aren't many solutions in the market. This partnership with IDH and UPEI is one way to accelerate a working solution so it can help farmers to tackle the disease problems. This also marks a start for us to broaden our focus in the company from smart feeding technology to aquaculture intelligence platforms. We strongly believe that by using our data and community as leverage, combined with domain expertise and global network that UPEI and IDH have, we can create a sustainable impact for millions of farmers in the world, starting from Indonesia."
For its part in the project, UPEI will help eFishery “to visualize farmers’ production data, to create predictive models on harvesting, stocking and feeding, and create a disease platform with early warning reports,” noted Larry Hammell, a UPEI professor in aquatic epidemiology.
“This collaboration between eFishery and the University facilitates the delivery of world-leading aquatic epidemiology expertise to farmers to meet their needs in optimizing disease management and reducing disease impacts,” Hammell said.
