Aquaponics
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
About a month ago, we welcomed The Life Aquaponic to Kopila Valley. Cal, Carla, Janessa, and Bobby all traveled to Surkhet from South Korea, where they’ve been teaching English and setting up aquaponics systems of their own. For several months before they arrived, we went back and forth by email trying to develop the ideal system for our new campus. We’re excited that they’re here and have gotten right down to business.
As a quick introduction to aquaponics (because we needed one too), this system combines fish farming with hydroponic fruit and vegetable production. Fish are raised in a tank or pond environment and, as they soil the water with their waste, this water is pumped to vertical grow towers and horizontal grow beds where a large variety of nutritious fruits and vegetables are planted. As this happens, beneficial bacteria break down the “waste,” making the nutrients readily available for the plants. Some of the water is taken up by the plants but most of it returns to the fish pond cleaned and ready to go through the cycle again.
There are more than a few reasons why we love this concept, especially as we begin to develop our new campus and vocational center.
- We can grow a TON of fresh, nutrient-packed vegetables. In the vertical towers, alone, we will have space for over one thousand plants. In addition, we’ll also have six horizontal grow beds that can accommodate several hundred more plants.
- All food produced in this system will go to our school and home lunches. At Kopila, we feed A LOT of people every day. This system will make us more self-sufficient and will cut down on the amount of fresh produce we have to buy, helping us to reduce our operating costs.
- Fish farming can be a very lucrative business in Surkhet Valley. Typically, fish are bought as fingerlings from a breeder for 3-5 rupees each. Within a year, these fingerlings can grow to 2 kg and sell for 1500 rupees, and in two years they can be 4-5 kg and sell for much more. And our system has been designed for 150 fish! With minimal costs for fish food (which we will supplement with litter from our own chickens), energy to run the pumps (free for us because The Life Aquaponic raised enough money to purchase solar panels as part of the installation), and someone to oversee the system (this will eventually be run by students), this could potentially be a great income generating activity for the new campus.
- An abundance of fresh, healthy food, income generation and increased self-sufficiency? Sounds like a vocational training opportunity to us! As with everything we’re bringing to our school and vocational campus, we want this system to act as an example for our students and the surrounding community. Aquaponics isn’t for everyone, as it does have start-up costs, energy demands and requires some technical know-how. However, we aim to show that this idea can be profitable, sustainable, and a viable solution for those with limited land area in the quickly developing area of Surkhet.
- Last, but far far far from least, aquaponics supplies us with practical lessons for our students. Biology lessons, agricultural lessons, even social lessons. For example, one thing we struggle with most in our area is waste and pollution. Aquaponics provides us with a great opportunity to demonstrate that a properly functioning system produces no waste. If it did, we wouldn’t consider it a necessary evil or an externality but a failure of our system. Here, our fish’s trash is our plants’s treasure.
This concept of stacking functions, or producing many benefits from one activity, is a key concept in permaculture design and something we look for in every project we pursue at our new campus.
We’re incredibly grateful to Bobby, Janessa, Cal, and Carla for taking an active interest in our organization and not only coming to Kopila with this new knowledge but also raising almost $6,000 through Kickstarter to fund the project! The past month hasn’t been easy, introducing a new technology in the midst of political unrest, protests and gas shortages. As it stands, we’re still waiting for a few materials to make their way to us from across the country and from India. However, things are starting to take shape and we can’t wait to share photos and updates as we complete the installation and start producing!
Thanks to everyone who's made this possible, we're really excited to be working with exciting sustainable technology!