AQUAPONicS

Future of Agriculture

What is Aquaponics?

Hydroponics is the technique that grows plants on water with out soil

Aquacultures is farming of fish

Aquaponics is the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture.

It address the issues in both of these practices by combining them as one system

Plant grows inside the green house on water without soil and fertilizer

Benefits

Needs only 5-7% of water compared to conventional agriculture

Fertilizer is not required which is one of the major cost component in conventional agriculture

Very less land is required

Tilling is not required

very less carbon foot print

No weed management

High yields per acre

Less man hours

Off season crops can be grown

Free from soil borne diseases

Crop grows 20% faster

Organically produced

Independent of weather

More shelf life

Easy harvesting process

Continuous production

Issues

High cost of initial establishment

First 3 months system wont produce

Limited knowledge on how to grow various crops

Systems are not standardized

Requires skills and expertise

Lack of suppliers and mass production of equipment in India

Economic Viability

Until 2011 there are not many commercially successful systems.

Past 4 years it is widely and successfully implemented in a commercial scale.

Very low percentage of farming community can afford and sustain the system

Though initial establishment cost is high, in long run it is more sustainable farming
than conventional

It is more viable in India compared to any other countries where aquaponics is

growing rapidly

Raising costs of fuel, fertilizer, and labor make this system more viable than
conventional

Due to the luxury of growing crops in offseason will increase gross income

Raising awareness of health leads to the demand of organic and nutritious food
which will benefit the aquaponics

Due to the high quality and longer shelf life these are much suitable to the export

Aquaculture

In regular aquaculture density of fish is very low compared to Aquaponics so

less yields

High density in Aqauponics is achieved due to the break down of ammonia by

bacteria and consumption of nitrates by plant

Managing ph. and temperature is easy compared to big fish ponds

Less disease prone

Easy harvesting

High survivability

Plant Culture

Plants can be cultured in Deep water system or Media beds.

Media beds contain rock or other supporting material through which water
will be running

Various types of media is available for media beds such as pebbles, rice husk

Will support most of the crops

Growth of the plant is faster and uniform

Yield can be continuous instead of batches which make less hassle to market

Can be grown in layers where artificial light is available

Case Study

One of the case study done in University of Virgin Islands by Dr James Rakcoy
on Oakra(ladies finger) and Tilapia

Total cultivation area 2300 sqft, fish tank size 8300 gallons and total are of
cultivation .2 acres

Okra annual production is 13.8 kg/square meter compared to 0.15 in field

Tilapia produced at 70kg/M3. Total this unit produced 4.8 tons in one year

Basil has produced 24 kgs/square meter/per annum

.2 acre can produced 5 tons vegetables and 5 tons of fish

Production may not be to that extent in real time comparing to the testing
conditions

Support requested

Considering the cost of establishment with out support of Telangaana Govt. it

wont be economically viable, and will not be implemented in large scale.

Subsidy of the initial cost greatly help this system to evolve and implement

An establishment of consortium with help of horticulture and agriculture

universities, where growers can participate.

Research needed to be done to adopt the system to horticulture as well as

floriculture field.

Facilitate exports

Cold storage establishments

How it helps

For every 30 min a farmer commits suicide in India, this situation no different
in Telangana . Farmers are in dire need of new viable solutions in agriculture
to sustain financially. Aquaponics can be that solution

30% of children are under malnutrition, and raising population need more
quality food. High yields of AQUAPONICS will made food more available and
cheap.

Current farming consumes lot of diesel, electricity, land and water which are
most valuable resources, and also consumptions Power and diesel leaves lot
of pollution into the environment

This is organically produced, will address lot of health issues that is arising
due to the pesticides. It also reduces soil contamination bye these pesticides.

Capturing this technology early will give advantage to TS to become the

leading agriculture produce suppliers

Floriculture can be greatly exploited and possibility of exports are high

Marketing

There is well established marketing structure for growers to sell directly in retail
market.

Under the consortium a brand can be established and marketed directly in to the
retail market under that brand

As these products are organic a high demand in the market can yield high price

Conclusion

Aquaponics is growing rapidly worldwide with great promising results, it will give a
great advantage to the farmers in Telangaana

A Govt. subsidy of 75% to 80% of the initial establishment cost is needed to initiate
the system

Will resolve the problems of farmers, government and consumer

Will solve the issue of disintegrating land because of industrialization by using the
less land

If the utility, and equipment produced in large quantities, cost of the initial
establishment of the system can be brought down.

Due to the dependency of the fertilizer eliminated in the system, Farmers as well
as Govt. can save significant amount of money