Center for Sustainable Integrated Agriculture and Aquaculture

Center for Sustainable Integrated Agriculture and Aquaculture

The Center for Sustainable Integrated Agriculture and Aquaculture (CSIAA) was formed in 2008 through a partnership between the Agriculture, Community and Natural Resources Division at the American Samoa Community College and the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program to meet the aquaculture education needs of American Samoa. With the primary mission of ensuring food security, the Center’s goals are:

• to increase farm production and returns, and the well-being of rural farm life, while improving sustainability and protecting the environment and human health;

• to improve crop quality/crop security through pest and disease monitoring and genetic diversity;    

• to increase production and marketing of farmed fish and aquaponics produce; and

• to improve public understanding of agriculture, aquaculture, and marine science, including their impacts on the land and sea.

Matching expertise with local needs, the CSIAA promotes & supports the development of aquaculture projects in American Samoa, with sound science-based advice and technical support. The CSIAA provides training in fish culture, fish feeds production, integrated plant and fish culture, aquarium science, and aquaponics. It also hosts internships, assists ASCC student projects as well as K-12 science fair projects, and hosts hundreds of visitors every year. Several projects at the Center address the lack of feed availability—the biggest challenge to the expansion of aquaculture in the Territory.

The American Samoa Sea Grant Extension Agent teaches two courses a year: MSC200 Introduction to Aquaculture, and MSC220 Introduction to Fisheries Management.  The Sea Grant Extension Agent also assists in teaching and coordinating MSC280 Marine Science Special Projects which is taught as a field-based course based on the University of Hawai‘i’s Quantitative Underwater Ecological Survey Techniques (QUEST) course.  The American Samoa Sea Grant Extension Agent mentors students in the Marine Science Program both through internships and by providing academic counseling.