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Why Aquaponics?

Facts and figures

  • 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52% of the land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation.

  • Land degradation affects 1.5 billion people globally.

  • Arable land loss is estimated at 30 to 35 times the historical rate.

  • Due to drought and desertification each year 12 million hectares are lost (23 hectares/minute!), where 20 million tons of grain could have been grown.

  • 74% of the poor (42% of the very and 32% of the moderately poor) are directly affected by land degradation globally.

Source: UNCCD Brochure 

The world needs new sources of protein and vegetables to feed its growing population. Aquaponics is a commercially viable sustainable process of high production capacity in areas otherwise not suitable for farming. 

One of the major problems in the development of Aquaponics as a mainstream system of agricultural production is the lack of economic metrics to define the success of a joint fish and vegetable operation as opposed to separate production units for each. SUPA provides improved metrics with the following attributes:- 

  1. Significant reduction in the water required for both the fish and the vegetable production in comparison to conventional fish and vegetable monoculture production. This improves as the scale of the unit increases and the relative volume of washback water from the filters is reduced. The wash-back water is used for a third ground-based crop or in underwater taro culture and has the added advantage of eliminating the fertiliser requirement for these crops or orchards.

  2. Removal of the requirement for fertilizers for vegetable production provided by the fish waste.

  3. Elimination for the need to expend energy on the treatment of fish farm effluent and the cost of its monitoring and regulation, reducing infrastructure and running costs.

  4. The ability to take advantage of vine crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers in vertical growth, reduce the land and space requirement and frees up fertile land for ground crops.

  5. The SUPA is high production with a small land requirement. The unit can be maintained by all family members.

  6. Ability to set up SUPA units adjacent to its consumers reduces transportation costs and waste as the harvest can be performed on a demand basis.

  7. Fish require between 1 & 2 kilograms of grain concentrate per kilogram of gain. Cattle in feedlots require roughly 7 kilograms of feed per kilogram of beef produced  Pigs, the ratio is nearly 4 to 1. Chickens with a 2-to-1 ratio.

  8. The fact that the SUPA does not allow high pesticide input agriculture and that our policy has been zero pesticide use from the outset means that the SUPA output is pesticide free for both those eating the produce and the environment.

 

There is evidence supporting the human health benefits for fish and vegetable as the protein and vitamin source in a healthy diet. This is what is lacking in the nearly one billion suffering from "malnutrition" in Sub-Saharan Africa - ironically most of them farmers. 

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