HUNGARY
Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture (HAKI)
Pioneering work in freshwater farming Aquaculture in Hungary, a land-locked country, consists primarily of freshwater pond farming. Much of the research in the ďŹ eld is carried out by the Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture, which has developed several innovative methods of boosting productivity in the sector.
T
he Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture (HAKI) traces its roots back to the Hungarian Royal Fish Physiology and Waste Water Purification Experimental Station that was established in 1896 in Budapest. In the 70s the station was upgraded to a regional aquaculture institute as the result of an FAO programme. The Fish Culture Research Institute as it became known was based in Szarvas and thanks to the FAO connection was very active internationally with projects in Latin America particularly Brazil, and in East Asia specifically China, Laos, and Viet Nam. In 2014 all the research institutes under the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture were integrated into one organisation, the
National Agriculture Research and Innovation Centre, of which HAKI is now part.
A long history of applied research Many of the developments in the Hungarian aquaculture sector have their genesis in work done at HAKI. The farming of African catfish, for example, today a success story in Hungary, which is the EU’s largest producer of the species, came about because the main producer worked at the institute. Even today his farm is a stone’s throw away from the institute’s premises and there is a close collaboration between the institute and the company. Bela Halasi-Kovacs, Director of HAKI,
Research is conducted in several experimental ponds. 34
Dr Bela Halasi-Kovacs, Director of HAKI
says that applied research is one of three departments at the institute and the work there is to address practical issues that fish farmers face. While scientific research into pond aquaculture, rearing
technologies, and the genetics and reproduction of different species is the focus of the institute’s work, economic and marketing subjects as well as complex cross-disciplinary topics such as the impact of climate change on freshwater aquaculture are also studied. The institute boasts a unique gene bank with 16 different carp strains from Asia, and other parts of Europe, including Hungary. A sturgeon gene bank is also maintained, originally to propagate the culture of sturgeon in the 80s, but subsequently to underpin a restocking programme for species native to the Danube, when it became apparent that they were endangered. Five native species, sterlet, beluga, Russian, stellate, and ship sturgeon, used to inhabit the Hungarian section of the river
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