Barbadians are being encouraged to pursue aquaponics and hydroponics techniques in agricultural production amid climate change and its negative impact on the economy.
The advice has come from Trinidadian consultant, Rakesh Bhukal, and director of the Centre for Agricultural Research and Innovation (CAGRI), Dr Michelle Singh.
They were speaking to farmers and prospective farmers at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Animal Nutrition Unit in The Pine, St Michael, on Thursday evening. There was standing room only for the free session, the seventh in a series on agricultural production training, a partnership of the Ministry, the Fisheries Division, CAGRI and the University of the West Indies (UWI). “Aquaponics is making waves all around the world,” said Bhukal, managing director of Aquatik Solutions and a doctoral student at UWI, St Augustine, Trinidad. He said in addition to crop damage, climate change developments such as flooding were associated with high food prices.
He told of how flooding has devastated crops in Trinidad.
“We need to take a look at these techniques in a more serious way,” he stressed.
Singh said the session was not intended solely for information purposes but for people to start businesses in either hydroponics or aquaponics. She pledged follow-up support from CAGRI.
“I believe in food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the ability of a people to choose their food and grow it,” she said.
Bhukal explained that with aquaponics, plants receive rich nutrients such as ammonia from the waste of fish which swim in the water. It presents an opportunity for both fish farming and growing food crops, he added.
Hydroponics is the process of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil.
Bhukal said both methods may incur high start-up costs, but farmers had options to start small and grow big. In some instances, he noted, the up-front costs could be recovered quickly.
Bhukal went on to give details on the management of hydroponics and aquaponics, methods of construction, green water and clear water, aquaculture, types of nutrients and plant nutrition, as well as types of aquaponics and hydroponics techniques.
“Systems range from small scale to commercial levels of production. Choose the system for the crop that you are growing,” he advised his listeners.
(HH)
