ABSTRACT
Aquatic agricultural systems (AAS) are diverse production and livelihood systems that occur along inland lakes and rivers, freshwater floodplains, estuarine deltas and coasts. Producing more food from available agricultural land is often considered the most feasible means by which to address food security, and intensification is outstripping expansion as a means to increase production. The AAS in the Barotse region of Zambia contain a multitude of different land and waterscape components. The concept of sustainable intensification has gained increasing popularity as a means to address the need for productive intensification without the attendant environmental costs often associated with conventional intensification. Developing coastal aquaculture in cages or ponds, or enhancing wild stocks through release of juveniles from hatchery systems can be considered marine correlates of terrestrial agriculture. Ghers are produced by constructing peripheral trenches around an aquaculture pond to provide shelter for stocked aquatic animals and to prevent flooding or escape.
