Diversification Options Available with Aquaculture
Aquaculture in Australia is increasingly procuring financial gains and resilience, especially when synergistically incorporated with other related commercial ventures.
An aquaculture enterprise may initiate as a completely new singular venture, ideally with the planned intention to expand and diversify, into hydroponics for example. Or an aquaculture operation can often be developed into an already established agricultural enterprise. Diversification does have the potential to increase profitability.
Waste water from both intensive pond culture and indoor tank farming is a valuable fertiliser resource for irrigation of many commercially viable agricultural commodity crops, including pasture, and hydroponics. Hydroponics alone, if established efficiently, can be a highly profitable commercial pursuit, as demand for more sustainably produced food increases and viable farm land decreases.
Certainly having a ‘Multi-site’ permit can bring in additional revenue, where-upon a land-owner with suitable property able to establish basic processing facilities, can nominate up to a thousand other privately owned dams, stocked sufficiently with yabbies which represent the best product for such a permit.
Aquaculture and hydroponic operations may also financially benefit from establishing ‘value-adding’ processing facilities, such as ‘cryo-vac’ and ‘jar-pickling’ packaging’, which demand higher revenue returns. Marketing is however, in general to any agri-business, the key to sustainable profitability.
Aquaculture and general agribusiness enterprises may financially benefit from ‘fish-out’ tourism enterprises, where the general public visit the farm and pay to ‘recreationally’ fish in farm ponds and dams. However, ‘fish-out’ operations do have their limitations and high running costs. Recreational fishing though is a significantly major industry in Australia.
And increasingly in Australia, creating artificial wetlands and contributing to native habitat protection and expansion does have the potential to add value, through both being paid for providing environmental services and creating water purification and re-use, to many agricultural businesses. Artificial agricultural wetlands do have a major roll in helping protect our natural environment. Creating artificial wetlands additionally simply adds to the aesthetic appeal of any farm.
The prominent message we desire to illustrate is that agricultural diversification does have the very real potential to help ensure business long term success and profitability, particularly due to the increasing market demand for environmental rejuvenation and preservation, all of which contributes to a better society.
