10/13/2020 Smart Monitoring Modernizes Aquaculture Pond Management｜Industry｜2019-10-10｜Sponsored Content

Smart Monitoring Modernizes

Aquaculture Pond Management

Source：The National Development Commission

Traditional aquaculture is a labor-intensive, time-consuming business that comes with high

economic risk. Within the industry, the transfer of professional experience occurs in a piecemeal
manner, and the younger generation generally has little interest in returning to their hometowns to
take over the family business. However, smart monitoring technology greatly improves the
prospects for the survival of family-run aquaculture farms into the second and third generation.

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By The National Development Commission

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We are visiting an aquaculture farm in Jiadung Township in Pingtung County on Taiwan’s

southwest coast. Floating on the artificial pond is a solar-powered water quality monitor. The
device tests the water quality every ten minutes, measuring oxygen content, salinity, pH
value, temperature and redox potential (ORP). Via the Internet of Things (IoT), the data are
automatically uploaded to the main frame and a cloud-based platform, round the clock.

Any abnormal values indicate deteriorating water quality that could cause fry and fish to die.
In such an event, the cloud-based platform will immediately send a warning to an app on the
mobile phone of Chen Chi-hung, head of the APMG (Agriculture Production and Marketing
Group) No. 8 of Aquaculture, Jiadung Township, so that he can immediately rush to the
pond, investigate and solve the water quality issue. “Even if I am not in Jiadung, I can
immediately ask my father to help me check on the fish pond when I get a notification on my
mobile phone,” says Chen.

A smart
water quality monitoring device automatically tests the water in the pond round the clock and uploads the
results to the cloud. Chen Chi-hung can monitor any adverse changes in real time via a mobile phone
app.

Traditional Monitoring is Labor Intensive and Time Consuming

Chen’s family fish farm mainly breeds profitable fishes such as groupers and threadfin. A
single aquaculture pond can generate annual earnings worth NT$2 million, but natural

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disasters and disease also constitute high risks that can jeopardize the entire business. A
typhoon, for instance, could cause ponds to overflow, a highly contagious virus could kill an
entire fishpond population, or declining oxygen levels due to a defective water wheel could
wreak havoc on the fish stock. In such cases, a year’s efforts and investment worth between
several million and several tens of millions could be wiped out virtually overnight.

Therefore, aquaculture farmers are used to keeping a tight watch on their ponds. Often, they
do not dare leave their farms just in case there is a situation that needs to be dealt with
immediately.

“Turnover is high for people who work at fish ponds part-time. If you hire full-time staff, the
older generation worries they will steal technology and become a competitor. Therefore, they
would rather look after the ponds themselves,” explains Chen. In 2009, when Chen was 32,
he decided to quit his city job and return home to help his father after Typhoon Morakot, one
of the deadliest typhoons in Taiwan’s recent history, had left a path of destruction, dealing a
heavy blow to fish farmers in Jiadung.

Chen Chi-
hung, a former participant in the Council of Agriculture’s Young Farmers’ Counseling Project, notes that
technology can improve aquaculture work efficiency and a ratio of fry that reaches marketable size but
also entice young people to return to the countryside to take over family farms. (Source: National
Development Commission)

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Having worked as a supervisor in a company, Chen looked at the business model of

traditional aquaculture farms with a different mindset. He discovered that work on the farms
was both time consuming and physically demanding, and lacked managerial logic and
efficient workflows. For instance, although feeding and patrolling didn’t require much time,
such work had to be done intermittently, so farmers were not able to leave the site. The older
generation fed their fish based on what they remembered as the previous feeding time, which
would often lead to mistakes such as overfeeding. In such cases, the excess fish feed had to be
manually skimmed off from the first pond to prevent costly waste and deteriorating water
quality, and was then dragged to the next pond for feeding. “The older generation would not
systematically teach their children how to raise fish commercially, nor did they have fish
farming information that could be handed down. Since coming here to help, I have wanted to
find a way out,” says Chen. He feared that, without a second and third generation of fish
farmers taking over the business, Taiwan’s aquaculture industry would probably die out. He
felt that introducing smart technology was a possible solution to help pass down experience
and technical skills.

Chen Chi-
hung provides system operators with feedback from fish farmers regarding the system’s performance in
daily operations. The feedback is used to optimize mobile app interface features so that a smartphone is
all fish farmers need to keep abreast of monitoring, documentation and traceability activities.

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Implementing Smart Solutions to Keep Fish Farming Alive

A popular saying goes: “In order to raise fish, you first need to cultivate the water,” which
means that fish only thrive in an aquaculture pond if the water quality is stable. In the past,
many fish farmers used to judge water quality with the naked eye instead of using objective
scientific measurement methods for observation and documentation over time. As a result, it
was not really possible to remain on top of changes in water quality. After consulting his
father, Chen obtained a section of the family fish farm to experiment with his own approach.
Having obtained a subsidy for smart fish farming facilities from the Fisheries Agency under
the Council of Agriculture in 2008, Chen introduced a smart water quality monitoring
system.

“After the introduction of the smart water quality system, we went through a period of birth
pangs because of the system’s lacking applicability,” recalls Chen. Some of the system
operator’s considerations in designing the system were not suitable for fish farming. Given
the rough outdoor conditions at the aquaculture ponds, installation of electric wires and
cables was not desirable. Also, the fish farmers were not ready to pay additional fees for
internet access, and the salinity of the sea water used in the ponds and algae growth would
have cause excessive wear and tear on electric devices. Since the original system was not able
to meet the needs of the fish farmers, the provider continued to develop and improve it.
Eventually, solar panels were chosen to provide the system with electricity to connect to free
IoT devices. Materials that are corrosion resistant in salt water were used for exposed parts,
and an automatic algae removal function was added as well.

After using the smart water quality monitoring system, the fish farmers were better able to
keep abreast of changes in water quality and fish health, which led to a lower mortality rate,
declining drug use and a concurrent increase in profitability and in the ratio of fry reaching
marketable size. As fish farming profits rose markedly just because of this single change, the
older fish farmers gradually came to accept the necessity of introducing smart technology.

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Moreover, now that fish farmers were no longer tied down, constantly watching fish and
water, they had more free time to spend with their families. Thanks to a better work-life
balance, they were able to learn new fish farming knowledge or open up new sales channels,
so that many more youngsters were ready to return to Jiadung or to stay there to make a
living in the aquaculture business.

Chen, for his part, spends his freed-up time thinking up marketing strategies and
promotional campaigns for the APMG’s own brand of seafood, exploring sales channels and
promoting educational events about edible fishes. “Giant grouper is usually exported, so the
average consumer only knows a little about this fish, a species that we farm ourselves in
Taiwan. If we tell the locals to eat giant grouper when exports are not so good, they will tell us
that they don’t know this fish species,” says Chen. After the introduction of smart water
quality monitoring, the fish farmers now have more time to market giant grouper in Taiwan,
expand sales channels, host educational activities about edible fishes or learn new fish
farming techniques, and participate in policy discussions with the Fisheries Agency. All of
these developments exert a positive influence on the fish farming families as well as the entire
industry.

Given that smart technology is advancing fast, the younger fish farmers hope that, once the
smart monitoring system technology has matured, big data analysis applications will be
added to support decision-making in the industry. This would also help the aquaculture pond
management model evolve, thus ensuring seamless succession on family farms.

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From
above, Jiadung looks like a giant patchwork with crisscrossing paths holding the aquaculture pond pieces
together. Although fish farming is a lucrative business, labor shortages and the rising age of the farmers
present challenges. Smart technology applications help modernize traditional fish farming, making it more
competitive and more appealing to the younger generation.

Smart Approach to Winning Elders’ Support

Most fish farms in Taiwan are run by older people who were born before the digital age.
These fish farmers tend to have reservations about the introduction and application of digital
technology, with some even rejecting it outright. In order to overcome such resistance, young
people who return to the countryside to assist running the mostly family-run fish farms or
prepare to take over from the parent generation follow the principle of “not letting father’s
generation put up the money or operate” the new-fangled devices. Instead, they first seek the
consent of the older generation for introducing smart water quality monitoring systems on
smaller aquaculture ponds on a trial basis, combining their own resources with government
guidance and subsidies. Once the ratio of fish reaching marketable size and income markedly
increase, they demonstrate the benefits of the new technology to the older generation to
convince them to embrace it. Eventually the smart devices can be rolled out across all of the
ponds in a fish farm.

About Agriculture Production and Marketing Group (APMG) No. 8 of

Aquaculture, Jiadung Township

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Founded: 2015
Members: 15, with an average age of below 45
Technology application: Two young group members have already introduced water quality
monitoring systems, and seven more are going to join.
Business performance: Annual production of the entire group is worth about NT$300
million, and it was honored by the Fisheries Agency as the top-performing APMG
nationwide in 2016 and 2017. It also established the Let’s Love Fish brand and won an
excellent seafood award for their Southern Pingtung Three Fishes Giftbox.

Translated by Susanne Ganz

Edited by TC Lin, Sharon Tseng
Content sponsored by National Development Commission

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