Rainbow Trout Farming in İmranlı Dam Lake (Turkey): Knowledge, Constraints and Opportunities

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic process has clearly demonstrated how important it is to ensure self-sufficiency and sustainability, especially in the production of agricultural and animal products. One of the inland water ecosystems that are important in terms of aquaculture production is dam lakes. In recent years, rainbow trout farming in dam lakes has been widely practiced in Turkey. One of the dam lakes where rainbow trout is grown in cages is İmranlı Dam Lake. The dam lake was built on the Kızılırmak River in Sivas province between 1994-2002. It is very valuable for the country's economy to use the waters of the İmranlı Dam Lake in the cultivation of rainbow trout in cages together with agricultural irrigation. The waters of the İmranlı Dam Lake give an important power to both agriculture and rainbow trout farming. In the İmranlı Dam Lake, 950 tons of rainbow trout and Turkish salmon are grown annually in net cages. The surface of the İmranlı Dam Lake, which has a water capacity of 62.5 million cubic meters and an area of 6.5 square kilometers, located within the borders of İmranlı district, where the air temperature drops to about 25-30 degrees below zero, is completely frozen in the winter season with the effect of cold weather every year. In the İmranlı Dam Lake, which is used to irrigate approximately 11.220 hectares of agricultural land in the summer months and where cage fishing is also carried out, the fish cages are under the ice mass. Rainbow trout can be fed by breaking the ice on the cages. Rainbow trout, which are grown in difficult conditions in the İmranlı Dam Lake, are highly preferred due to both the air and the coldness of the water. The rainbow trout farm, which was established in the İmranlı Dam Lake in 2010, has reached an extremely important position in terms of modern production infrastructure, quality and meeting the animal protein needs of people.