Integrated Tilapia Farms

Rumaitha al Busaidi , Oman

Rumaitha works in aquaculture to respond to the changing agricultural landscape in Oman. Rumaitha worked with farmers whose groundwater sources had been contaminated with seawater, leaving them unsuitable for traditional agricultural use. Using aquaculture, 15 farmers have been able to transform their land into productive fish farms. Studying aquaculture at postgraduate level, Rumaitha focused her masters thesis on the viability of installing tilapia farms on farmland that was no longer fit for agricultural use. Rumaitha was initially awarded funding to start up one tilapia farm to determine the viability and scalability of the project. Having demonstrated the success of this initial farm she was eventually able to scale the project to 15 farms in Oman. Rumaitha has plans to further expand her project reach to help those adversely affected by climate change.

Rumaitha spoke at One Young World 2017 Bogotá, sharing her innovative use of aquaculture to combat poverty with young leaders from more than 190 countries. After her session she was approached by Ambassadors from Southern African states asking about her project and the prospect of bringing it to their home countries, potentially leading to further replication of her work.