About AIT Aquaculture

AIT Aquaculture is the flagship Academic Program of Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand that was established as the Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AARM) program in the 1980’s. AARM has been producing over 500 postgraduates since 1982, and has a strong network of alumni spread all over the world. Most of the AARM alumni occupy leadership positions in reputed international organizations, academia, governments and industry.

The Asian Institute of Technology (www.ait.ac.th) is an international postgraduate academic and research organisation based in Thailand with a truly multinational and multicultural learning environment, supported by a vast network of over 20,000 highly successful alumni worldwide. Current students at AIT represent nearly 50 countries, and faculty come from over 20 countries.

Aquaculture is currently a global industry. It is also the world’s fastest food production sector. A sizeable section of the population depends on aquaculture products directly or indirectly. As the world population is expected to reach ~9 billion by 2050, FAO estimates that aquaculture should grow by 33% from the level of 76 million tons in 2017 to nearly 100 million tons by 2025. The Asia-Pacific region produces almost 90% of the global aquaculture output. Increasing food demands due to rapid population growth will continue to drive aquaculture producers to use more and more intensive methods from accessible land and water areas.

The major emphasis of AARM’s past research had been to address poverty, food and nutrition security, and the creation of employment, especially for rural communities in the Asia Pacific region. Recently AARM has an all new research focus with a global outlook on intensive aquaculture systems that can contribute to both sustainable production and increased profits. This is in line with the emerging sectoral challenges, most of which are common in an increasingly connected global community across all the geographical or cultural barriers.

AARM’s current focus is to generate new knowledge for the development of more productive as well as more resource-efficient and profitable technologies. AIT aquaculture also tests and transfers such innovative technologies through building the capacity of individuals and institutions around the globe.