Sustainable systems for integrated fish and vegetable production: new perspectives on aquaponics

1 Introduction According to the FAO, 'food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life' (FAO, 2009). Global food security is characterized by four major features, namely food availability, physical and economic access to food, food utilization and food stability (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2013). As not only food quantity, but also the nutritional value of food is essential to public health, high-yielding production systems encouraging production of both animal protein and fish lipids and high-value horticultural produce high in fibres, minerals and bioactive compounds are highly interesting. One potential system is aquaponics (AP), integrating fish and seafood rearing (aquaculture) with soilless production of horticultural produce (hydroponics). Such engineered systems also meet the demands posed by some of the grand global challenges, such as global population growth, urbanization, global climate change, limited access to resources for agricultural activities (e.g. water and land use) and sustainability.