Seawater Foundation - Seawater Farms Eritrea

What is an Integrated
Seawater Farm ?

A seawater farm is a farm that uses clean, untreated seawater to raise its crops instead of freshwater. This represents the second invention of agriculture based this time on the almost infinite supply of water that resides in the world's oceans.

An integrated farm is a farm that combines the growing of field and orchard crops with the husbandry of animals. Until the advent of factory farming in the last century, almost all freshwater agriculture integrated the breeding and raising of animals with the cultivation of green crops. In the case of integrated seawater farming, the animals we raise are shrimp and fish. The green crops are salt-loving edible plants and mangrove trees.

Because integrated seawater farming was developed in our time, we have engineered it to address the problems of our time — hunger, environmental degradation, rising temperatures, drougth and desertification, collapsing fisheries, shrinking cropland, disappearing forests, the loss of plant and animal species, poverty, and indirectly, the growth of population.

Our Goals

Land has already been set aside for the establishment of a new seawater-based community providing homes and jobs for some of Eritrea's displaced people. Training will be provided to equip workers with the skills necessary to operate downstream industries creating the byproducts of integrated seawater farming. new factories will make edible oil, particle board, fire bricks, moder lumber, fish leather goods, goat cheese, cereals, shrimp and fish specialties, and numerous other products.

We ship shrimp and fish to European markets as a way of earning much-needed hard currency. In the long run we envision duplicating this farm many times up and down the coast of the Red Sea sharing this development with other nations in the region and providing a dependable source of food for all the people in the region and for their livestock as well.

We see this as a giant step forward toward creating new wealth in the region, building stable new communities with new industries and rewarding employment. We see this as a major guarantor of future peace in the region and of self-sufficiency for its people. We see it as a way of greening the desert coastline, remaking the enviornment, creating comfortable new micro-climates, and encouraging tourism.

Ultimately we believe this new technology will make the region one of the most productive shrimp and fish producers as well as one of its more productive agricultural areas using saltwater to irrigate new forests and to produce vegetables, oil, meal, and biomass for fuel, building materials, fodder and grazing.

Update: The Seawater Foundation along with Seaphire International, began Seawater Farms Eritrea (SFE) in 1999 in joint partnership with the Government of Eritrea.

The following document outlines the status of SFE in 2003. Unfortunately, the position within Eritrea and its political climate changed shortly after this description was written. At that time SFE employed almost 800 people, shipped one metric tonne of premium shrimp a week to Europe or the Middle East and cultivated 100 hectares of the oil seed crop salicornia, and was completing the planting of 100 hectares of seawater forest. Additionally we created, a 60 hectare wetland, which welcomed over 200 species of birds and many other animals to a new home in the desert and kept the used aquaculture seawater from returning directly to the sea.

It’s our hope that circumstances will change and we will be able to reinstate the farm to its most productive; to benefit the people of Eritrea and the world.

What It Is, Where It Is, Why It Is

Eritrea Map Seawater Farms Eritrea is the world's first commercial-scale integrated seawater farm.

It is located on the west coast of the Red Sea on a vast stretch of barren desert just north of the Eritrean port of Massawa. Here, on this very ground, was fought the largest tank and artillery battle of Eritrea's thirty-year fight for independence. So, this location has great symbolic power.

It is here that the future of a new Eritrea is being built. Here we are creating a model that could provide a fruitful future for all the nations of the whole region now that peace has been forged at last.

Seawater Farms Eritrea is unlike any farm ever built

We began its construction by cutting a huge channel from the Red Sea. This saltwater river, wide enough for small boats, runs onto the land, providing water to the land-based brick and concrete circles in which we raise our shrimp, Eritrea Aerial filling the three salt lakes that hold the bulk of our fish, nurturing the thousands of mangroves that will shade its shores, irrigating our field crops, and draining, finally, into a sea garden park that is also accessible to boating. This park, forested by several varieties of mangroves, shelters innumerable species of flora and fauna, herons, flamingos, and other shorebirds, marine animals of many kinds, and provides controlled grazing for domestic animals, including goats and camels.

Shrimp Harvest From the sea garden, the water percolates slowly through the soil on its long way to sub-surface return to the sea as clean or cleaner than it was before. This cycle of use guarantees that the sea will not be fouled by the wastes from the farm, and that the waters offshore will remain clear and clean for fish and shellfish to thrive and for people to swim, snorkel and scuba.

The innovative design of the farm enhances the
environment in many ways

By planting eventually hundreds of thousands of hectares of field crops, we will be greening a substantial portion of coastal desert. By planting millions of new mangrove trees, we will be creating new mangrove forests. Both fields and forests will absorb immense amounts of atmospheric carbon, helping to lessen global warming. The most, newly green fields and forests will also create new micro-climates, making the surrounding area more livable and more attractive to tourism. The sea garde provides a new and attractive habitat to numerous animal and plant species and an attractive and aesthetically pleasing amenity to visitors.

Goats Feeding Nothing here is wasted. The bricks used to construct our shrimp circles are made here on the farm. So is the food we give our shrimp. Our feed mill also makes feed for chickens, goats, cattle and camels, which is much needed in Eritrea. Wastes from the fish and shrimp help to fertilize our field crops. After the fish are filleted, their skins are tanned for leather and their bones and innards go into the shrimp food. One of our principal field crops, Salicornia, provides a gourmet vegetable from its young shoots. The mature plant provides seeds that produce a fine edible oil and a high protein meal. There is also a large amount of biomass which can be used, along with other seawater-irrigated crops we grow, for animal fodder, particle board, and fire bricks. Combinations of Salicornia straw and meal with fish and shrimp meal provide a complete feeding regimen for most domestic Woman Tending Mangroves animals and a signifant part of human feed.

We expect this first commercial-scale integrated seawater farm and its associated research facilities and industries to be a magnet for eco-tourism, for academic study, and for itnerested government and agribusiness officials from all over the world. Accordingly, we have a visitors' center, a Seafalls Restaurant, and plan a luxury Sea Garden Hotel. Guided boat tours will traverse the entire expanse of the farm, and opportunities will be afforded for close observation of our technology and direct discussions with our agronomists and aquaculturists.

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