Aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture (farming fish). This is a symbiotic relationship, where the fish waste becomes a food source for the plants, and the plants in turn provide a natural filter for the fish. This managed ecosystem is becoming increasingly popular as food sources and groundwater become increasingly polluted.
Aquaponics is an ideal answer to recycling nutrient rich water and the hydroponic enthusiasts need for a nutrient rich solution. The best part of this environmentally friendly system is that everything is organic with no chemicals added.
Still in its infancy, aquaponics follows a steady upward growth curve. Obvious hydroponic benefits include: elimination of fertilizer costs and associated labor. The drastic reduction in filtration of fish waste is the main benefit that aquaculture offers.
A home aquarium containing edible fish or ornamental fish is easy to integrate with a smaller hydroponic system to grow fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers. Several backyard farmers are in the process of developing aquaponic frameworks that provide enough fish and produce for their family.
Aquaponics is poised to become a major new part of urban food production in major cities around the world, especially on roofs, walls, and inside buildings. It is becoming a new form of urban organic farming, with a magic touch in providing more health-promoting omega-3 oil, an essential oil that most human diets urgently need.
In modern aquaponics, fish, molluscs, and crustaceans are fed nutrients from recycled feed. Microorganisms then convert the fish waste into plant food. Fish, crustaceans, shellfish, herbs, vegetables, and fruits are made into superior fresh foods with little or no transportation or energy cost. The water cleaned by the plants is reused in the tanks and costs are greatly reduced. Fresh food transportation costs are virtually eliminated. It is an ingenious human imitation of Mother Nature.
Aquaponics is a word adopted in the United States, about 35 years ago, to describe the combination of animal husbandry and aquatic animals (fish, crustaceans and molluscs) with the cultivation of vegetables and fruits in organic-hydroponics. In Australia, for example, it is poised to evolve into a modern, organic form of sensible urban farming using solar-powered LED lighting technology and incorporating recycling of clean urban organic matter with the provision of omega-3 oils in fresh food. .
The technology has its roots in China and Central America more than 1000 years ago. Chinese rice farmers raised fish in their flooded paddy fields. Until the Spanish conquistadors ruined their simple systems, the Aztecs and Incas had ‘chinampas’ where the city’s channeled sewage ponds raised fish in water, fruits and vegetables on rafts.
It is now a more sensible food system integration that has been largely overlooked in humanity’s blind embrace of industrial and unsustainable exploitation of soil and water. The main inputs in aquaponics are fish feed and expert labor to care for and harvest the double cropping system. At best, aquaponic fish are herbivores and omnivores that can use locally produced feed containing omega-3 oils.
Fresh products from aquaponics are healthier local foods for humans. It has less harmful fats, sugars and carbohydrates and more omega-3 oils, for more solid human diets. Aquaponics with added technology also promises cheaper fresh food in “protected farming” systems alongside home kitchens, restaurants and food service facilities.
The plan of some companies is to develop a modular system for aquaponics, enclosed in a protected and climate-controlled environment to minimize pests and diseases. New technologies in water, food nutrient recycling, and energy supply will minimize development costs and minimize speed to local markets over very short distances. This new technology is targeting global markets for efficient urban agriculture that costs less to supply cities with fresh, healthy food.
Aquaponics modules are being merged into more efficient local food production units, with the plan to tie these systems together in a new way, offering them within a low-cost, portable building that can be repackaged and transported to another site. , if required. necessary. Such buildings and equipment will be offered as urban and rural franchises or sold as second step relief packages when disasters adversely affect local food supplies.
However, the biggest near-term opportunity for aquaponics is in rooftop gardeners, green roofs, and green city walls. Aquaponics is an environmentally friendly practice and should be adopted due to the benefits mentioned above.