Yanik Nyberg – Are saltwater plants grown on tens of millions ha of abandoned, drained salt marshes going to be the livestock feed of the future?

A conversation with Yanik Nyberg, co-founder of Nara Climate and Sea Water Solutions, about feed for aquaculture and on-land livestock, salinity—when soils get saltier. Millions of hectares of former soil marshes close to the coast have been drained over the last thousands of years and often farmed, slowly but surely because of rising seawater levels. Soil water is creeping back in, and traditional farming is getting impossible. What do we do with these millions of hectares? One way is to rewet them and grow salt-loving plants called halophytes. These plants are also great feedstock for the aquaculture industry and poultry to replace the massive negative impact of soy.

So, what is holding back the large feed companies from incorporating this novel but originally the feedstock of many fish into their mixes? Interestingly enough, most of the world’s deserts are getting saltier too. Because of extreme rain, yes, it rains in the desert every now and then, which leads to flash floods. Millions of livestock pastoralists and their animals are suffering because of drought and floods, and the salts make their grass-based pastures disappear. Could the magical salt-loving halyphoates also be grown in the desert and feed these animals?

LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION ON:

WHY ARE THE HALOPHYTES, THE SALTWATER-LOVING PLANTS, SO IMPORTANT?

Halophytes can help sequester carbon and restore natural ecosystems, reducing the impact of drought and degraded land.

”We are taking plants that do not grow in those conditions, and we’re forcing them to grow in inland deserts for the purpose of: 1. sequestering carbon, but fundamentally, at the end of the day, we’re trying to grow crops where they’re needed most, and in the case of places like the Kalahari or northern Kenya, the crossroads of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Uganda, those places rely on pastoralist ways of life, and every year, millions of cattle and livestock die in these drought conditions in those regions alone.” Yanik Nyberg

”So, we see halophytes in these ecosystems that can grow in virtually any condition, in some of the harshest conditions, like the Kalahari Desert, as the initial feedstocks that can help support the restoration. So, if we’re creating big farms with saltwater, then we can feed cattle. They can be managed better in less of a crisis mode. They can actually be managed properly and therefore also accelerate the restoration of the native rangelands.” Yanik Nyberg

”The cattle still graze on the halophytes, right? The salt marsh species, which is actually a really fantastic feed for livestock. And, yeah, obviously, in the modern day, land is becoming more valuable and livestock are becoming less valuable. So, the economics are changing, and some of these landowners and landowning families have transitioned to maybe brine shrimp aquaculture.” Yanik Nyberg

SALINITY IS NOT ONLY AN ISSUE ON FARMLAND CLOSE TO THE COAST BUT ALSO IN DESERTS THOUSANDS OF KM AWAY FROM THE COAST

Salinity occurs when land becomes salty due to coastal flooding or climate-induced drought conditions.

”Salinisation is the process where land becomes salty, simply put. So that can happen in a number of different ways. So, one way is on the coast, where, for example, there’s coastal flooding, and then that coastal farmland becomes salty. That’s one smaller, I think, reason for it. But when you’re looking at inland, you have climate change creating drought conditions, and when you have these climate-induced weather patterns, when a lot of rain falls very quickly and then dries up immediately, there’s salt in all of the water, all fresh water, like trace salt. So, when it rains a lot, and then that evaporates very quickly, it leaves that trace salt over time, and when the ground is not covered, that evaporation is quicker, and over time, this can be decades, salt builds up on land. And so, this is a problem that few people really understand. But according to recent estimates by the likes of the United Nations and the European Union, 1.7 billion hectares of land are affected. So that’s, I think that’s just over the size of Russia.” Yanik Nyberg

HOW TO RESTORE COASTAL FORMER SALT MARSHES WHILE GROWING A LOT OF LIVESTOCK FEED

The goal is to integrate aquaculture into these ecosystems to produce feed locally and reduce pollution.

”These plants are really amazing at soaking up salt, so they have been used to remediate land as well. So, when you’re looking at conventional agriculture, you can use these plants to basically soak up the salts and allow the rehabilitation of that farmland. So, in this context of the livestock, that’s not what we’re doing now. We’re actively taking saline, salt-affected land and building farms on it, using these halophytes. ” Yanik Nyberg

”So that was our first coastal focus, actually looking at these areas, and that’s really where the idea came from, in using blue ecosystem species like mangroves and salt marsh plants to rehabilitate those areas and those aquaculture sites and integrate the aquaculture into that while also then producing feed locally on site. So that was our main focus there at the start.” Yanik Nyberg

IT TAKES TIME AND MONEY TO GET NEW FEED INGREDIENTS ACCEPTED INTO FEED MIXES

The availability of halophytes as feedstocks and the challenges of proving their effectiveness to feed companies

”The good thing to start off with is that there’s a lot of really peer-reviewed academic research on the application of halophytes in feed from broiler chickens to tilapia to other species. But the quality of that research, multi-year live feed trials, specific species in a specific methodology that simply isn’t there yet. So, while the data is really indicatively very strong, these feed companies do require that level of intensity for the trials, really at a commercial grade. So that’s one of the challenges there. And so, balancing that between I would say, the belief that the feedstocks, the availability of feedstock is there, that commercial scale is available, and they add at the right price point, I think, to prove those three out, that’s the real challenge that takes time, and, frankly, quite a lot of money as well. When you’re looking at salmon, each trial is potentially two years long. It’s a time- consuming thing. So, we’re doing this with a number of species now, but it’s a year away or so before really tried and tested results can be ascertained.” Yanik Nyberg

OTHER POINTS DISCUSSED

Koen and Yanik also talked about:

  • Low-impact harvesting methods
  • Integrating coastal blue ecosystems into industrial ponds
  • The disconnect between fish and their ecosystems

LINKS:

LINKED INTERVIEWS:

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The above references an opinion and is for information and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

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