Aquaponics can help fight poverty with healthy food — OPed. Recirculating farms using aquaponics are an agricultural method and a socially responsible business. They support the use of renewable energy, recycle water and waste, and provide local food. A closed aquaponic system also provides a huge advantage in regions with water stress because the water used is recycled.
And because nutrient-rich water is constantly available for crops in production, plant growth increases and space requirements are reduced. The only limiting factor is sunlight. Growing demand for water resources, reduced availability of terrestrial water and concern for food security have stimulated the evolution of many innovative and complex food productions. An aquaponic system is a productive, innovative and sustainable fish and vegetable production system that is revolutionizing agriculture in the face of drought, loss of soil fertility and climate change.
Aquaponics, as an advanced system of aquaculture and agriculture, is expected to improve food security in developing countries. However, as an emerging technology, there is very little information about the system in Africa. Questions about the ecological and socio-economic sustainability of aquaponics are answered in this comprehensive review. This review considers aquaponics projects in Africa, classifies technology by evidence of its effectiveness, fish and plant performance, and juxtaposes technology within best use practices to make recommendations that will inform evidence-based policymaking.
It also maps the current spatial adoption of technology in sub-Saharan Africa and highlights the system's contribution to improving food security on the continent. Egypt and South Africa are countries where aquaponics is emerging and is being adopted at a faster pace and contributing to food security. In West Africa, significantly lower net discounted benefit-cost ratios were obtained when aquaponic systems were built with imported materials compared to using locally available materials. Although aquaponic systems generally have higher start-up costs today, their potential to be economically viable when made with local materials is very high.
Poor households have been helped to establish different scales of backyard aquaponic systems to increase food self-sufficiency and income. In addition to market value and customer acceptance, plants used in aquaponics are chosen based on their ability to sufficiently recover nutrients for growth. Aquaponics also has its roots in Southeast Asia, where farmers grew rice and fish simultaneously, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Intermediate bulk containers (1,000 L capacity) are commonly used as fish farming and water treatment units in most aquaponic systems in Egypt as a cost-saving measure.
Domestic and commercial aquaponic establishments in Egypt and South Africa have been directly linked to ensuring food security in rural and urban environments. In recent years, aquaponics has been increasingly chosen as a growth option for urban farmers, or those who practice agriculture in cities and must rely on vertical farming techniques when faced with a smaller land area. SANFU's prototype aquaponic system, which was created using relatively expensive foreign-sourced components, can produce about 2.8 kg of fish and 3 kg of vegetables per year with a nitrogen output of 48.5 g. While most of the narrative in this section highlights the contribution of aquaponics to food security, it should be seen as a complementary technology to conventional aquaculture and agriculture, as it is currently suitable for the cultivation of some fish species and has not been optimally proven to be able to support the cultivation of most of the key staple foods.
Aquaponic farms can be set up in spaces as large as unused warehouses, as small as the alley behind the local repair shop, or as unlikely as atop the roof of the community's Boys and Girls Club. In Mexico, a nonprofit organization introduced and taught aquaponics to orphanages so that children no longer have to rely so much on conventional foods shipped from afar. Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, which are the main contributors to the continent's aquaculture in Africa, are also leading countries in the adoption of aquaponics. Upon his return, Musser founded the Texas-based nonprofit Aquaponics %26 Earth and faced the challenge of helping orphans in Mexico and around the world get adequate nutrition.
On the one hand, the initial initial investment for large-scale commercial systems can be substantial and could discourage potential commercial aquaponic producers from starting the process. Comparative vegetable yield studies in Egypt's two commonly used aquaponic systems, deepwater cultivation (DWC) and sand bed systems, indicate that yields are approximately 30% higher in DWC systems, although this system uses lower water reuse efficiency ( Salem, 201). . .
