Aquaculture Hydroponics Is The Answer To The Modern Food Problems

By William Cole


There has been several questions relating to Aquaponics. The questions range from how the technology works, are the products safe for consumption, can it be set up in homes, and what the investment required among others. This simply tells you how quickly this farming technique is being adopted in the different parts of the world. Aquaponics simply refers to Aquaculture Hydroponics, an agricultural technique that harnesses the power of nature to solve food problems.

Hydroponics is simply the technique of growing plants without soil. The techniques rely on exposing the plant roots directly to waters rich in nutrients required by the plant. It has been used to successfully grow plants like lettuce, several salad greens as well as succulent herbs including basil.

In order to solve this problem, the farming technique relies on 2 types of harmless bacteria that quickly break the ammonia down to nitrates. Nitrites are a very important nutrient required by all plants. Nitrite-laden water is enough to sustain most vegetables and fruits until full maturity, resulting in a 100% organic food product.

Aquaculture on the other hands is not a new farming technology as per say> it has been in existence for decades. It involves growing fish in ponds for consumption purpose. The fish grown in ponds requires feeding. The main challenge associated with aquaculture is the need to frequently change the water to minimize the toxic effect of ammonia (fish excrement). When left to accumulate, it becomes poisonous and can wipe out all the fish in the pond in a matter of hours.

The results is that little space is required to set up a structure that can support large number of fish, fruits and vegetables with little initial investment and very little input from the farmer. The nature provides the solution to its own problem, and the resulting plants are healthy, the fish grows healthy and the farmer benefits from very healthy food sources.

As such, the nitrates are left to concentrate to a suitable level after which seeds are planted in netting pots. The nitrate-laden water is allowed to wash the roots, thereby delivering nitrates directly to the roots. The plants are able to grow and thrive in this way. When the nitrates are absorbed by the plants, the water is clean again and ready to be used by the fish.

Aquaponics has gained popularity in the recent past and is now available in all parts of the world. It is used to provide food for commercial purpose as well as domestic use. Tilapia is the most popular fish in Aquaponics systems. However, there has been success in growing other fish species like perch, carp, largemouth bass, bream, crappies and several types of ornamental fish like goldfish and Koi.

The emergence of numerous environment-conscious individuals, there are Aquaponics systems offered to suit everyone's needs. You will eventually realize that the profitability of hydroponics and hydroponics kits and Aquaponics systems as a business can depend on several factors. They can be set up almost anywhere and are very cheap to maintain.




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