About This Project

The integration of clean production of fish and plants in Aquaponic systems, its known for its environmental benefits and promotion of food sovereignty, but also for its costly installation and maintenance. Several species of vegetables will be cultured in our Aquaponics Lab in Uraba (Colombia), under different conditions of density and substrates to define a technical protocol for production, that contribute to adjusting the model to make it affordable by rural communities.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Urabá, an impoverish and biodiverse region in Colombia’s southwest Caribbean, highly affected by the armed conflict, has an economy based on extractive activities and intense agricultural production, that has severely impacted the environment. This situation calls for research on improvement of alternative economical models such as the Aquaponics that reduce the human pressure on the ecosystems, ensuring the economical sustenance of vulnerable communities. Our Lab works on developing small‑scale modular aquaponic systems that can be replicated on rural areas, where conditions can be challenging. This closed‑loop system that merges aquaculture and hydroponics, is timidly being implemented in Colombia, due to its costly initial investment. Therefore, developing new protocols for production with better cost/benefit relation, that can make affordable this model, is vital for its replication, widening its environmental and social benefits for the region.

What is the significance of this project?

Some of the well known environmental benefits of aquaponics are the reduction of the human pressure on biological resources, a more than 90% less consumption of fresh water from the environment, and almost none contamination generated. Additionally, when well adjusted to their particular contexts, this production model can constitute a good and clean way to improve food sovereignty and financial sustenance for rural communities that endure challenging conditions. This project looks to define a suitable technical protocol for production of vegetables under different conditions of density and substrate in an aquaponic system, that could complement our current work to generate a replicable model adjusted to the conditions of limited access to water and energy that characterize our rural communities.

What are the goals of the project?

Building on our current phase, this project seeks to run new experimental trials combining the culture of several vegetables species for human and animal consumption with the current trials of fish culture, under different conditions of density (number of plants per square meters) and substrate arrangements (different combinations of organic and mineral compounds). After measuring growth parameters until reaching the commercial size and weight, the conditions that ensure the best performances will be registered to be used in current trials to select the best combination to complete a protocol than can be proposed to rural communities for future trials in situ.

At the same time, a commercialization roadmap will be designed—whether individually or collectively—and implemented for the Lab production, in order to advance on a marketing plan for aquaponics products in the region.