Sustainability
IMTA promotes economic and environmental sustainability by converting byproducts and uneaten feed from fed organisms into harvestable crops, thereby reducing eutrophication, and increasing economic diversification.
Properly managed multi-trophic aquaculture accelerates growth without detrimental side-effects. This increases the site's ability to assimilate the cultivated organisms, thereby reducing negative environmental impacts.
IMTA enables farmers to diversify their output by replacing purchased inputs with byproducts from lower trophic levels, often without new sites. Initial economic research suggests that IMTA can increase profits and can reduce financial risks due to weather, disease and market fluctuations. Over a dozen studies have investigated the economics of IMTA systems since 1985.
Read more about this topic: Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture