The futuristic world of agriculture - cultivation of fish and vegetables in a closed system. The system is based on fish waste providing the required nutrients for plants to grow. In this way fish (trout, tilapi etc) and vegetales can be harvested together, with a small amount of water loss. It is an ideal system for countries where available water supply is scarce. To make systems energy efficient in aquaponics or as it is known in spanish acuaponia solar panels can be used.
Aquaponics is a great alternative way to produce beyond organic food that is sustainable and safe, reducing your food bill and guarantee no chemical or contamination has gone in to your food chain.
What is Aquaponics? It is the combination of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) that incorporate the production of horticultural crops such as Hydroponics. Combining these two systems and methods provides an all-natural nutrient solution for plant and fish growth while eliminating the fish and nutrient waste product which is often disposed in the environment. Water from a fish tank loaded with waste nutrient is recirculating in a continuous cycle through an area planted with crops, this provide nutrient to plants and clean water for the fish. mean to obtain .
Aquaponics has been developed from the beneficial build-up of nutrient in aquaculture. Hydroponics is the method of growing agricultural crops without the use of soil. Instead of soil, various inert growing media also called substrates are used. The media provide plant support and moisture retention. Irrigation systems are integrated within these media, thereby introducing a nutrient solution to the plants' root zones. This solution provides all of the necessary nutrients for plant growth. Most soil-less culture methods use a fraction of the water necessary for traditional soil- based production because the nutrient solution is re-used in a closed loop .
Aquaculture is the captive rearing and production of fish and other aquatic animal and plant species under controlled conditions. Many aquatic species have been cultured, especially fish, crustaceans and molluscs and aquatic plants and algae. Aquaculture production methods have been developed in various regions of the world, and have thus been adapted to the specific environmental and climatic conditions in those regions. The four major categories of aquaculture include open water systems (e.g. cages, longlines), pond culture, flow-through raceways and recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS).
In a RAS operation water is reused for the fish after a cleaning and a filtering process. Although a RAS is not the cheapest production system owing to its higher investment, energy and management costs, it can considerably increase productivity per unit of land and is the most efficient water-saving technology in fish farming. RAS is the most applicable method for the development of integrated aquaculture agriculture systems because of the possible use of by-products and the higher water nutrient concentrations for vegetable crop production.
Aquaponics History
Aquaponics = comes from the word from AQUA (water) and PONOS (Greek word for works) = WATER WORKS. Aquaponics as we know of today is an adaptation of an ancient technique utilised to cultivate edible crops as well as a source of aquatic protein, in a more scientific sense we refer to it as integrated farming. The very first sign of this practice has been described in past literature like the "hanging basket of Babylon" and drawings from the Aztec had left us great examples of integrated farming like the "Chinampas" or known as "The floating gardens" which was simply a reeds barge covered with the mud from the swamp and then fertilised by all living organism living in the swamp water. This practice is still the everyday reality in some remote areas of Vietnam and a few more Asian cultures where rice paddock are directly fertilised only by the aquatic organism populating the waters, one of my favourite examples is Inle Lake in Myanmar is what we could describe as an Aquaponic floating village. Modern science in the 20th century has eventually led to discovery of Hydroponic cultivation (crop raised in water with a synthetic nutrient solution) and following on from this only 40 years ago a professor and a student from a University in US trialled and tested the ancient floating raft technique, that was the day Aquaponics was re-born. Since then much has developed and more is still to be discovered and trialled with encouragement of governments funding research and development in this relatively new and ever evolving field, the aim is to produce food with a lower carbon footprint and in a more sustainable way. In the last five years we have noticed an increasing demand for this alternative farming solution throughout the world, the new era has begun, and now is the right time to be a part of it!
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Mundo Acuaponia
The great and wonderful world of aquaponics - agriculture of the future - how to grow fish and vegetables in a closed loop system.
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