Owing to increased salinity along the southern coast of the Netherlands, farmers have to look for an alternative way to put their fields to use. On an experimental farm in the southwestern province of Zeeland, an estuary region formed by the deltas of major rivers, a new aquaculture project has gotten off the ground – farming sole.
The process in the saltwater basins involves reproducing a food chain of sole, worms, shellfish and algae. The plan is aimed at expanding the aquaculture sector in the southern province, with a view to finding alternatives for traditional farming.
Some farmers are already practising this “mixed farming” idea. But the plan has also been met with considerable criticism, with question marks concerning its commercial viability and whether the province of Zeeland, which suffered a major tragedy in 1953 when burst dykes killed 1836 people, should allow its meadows to be filled with saltwater.
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