Nanobubble Tech Could Revolutionize Aquaculture & Aquaponics

Image from: University of Hawai’i News

The burgeoning fields of aquaculture and aquaponics hold vast potential for growing food. Yet, the efficacy of these microbial-mediated processes is governed by the availability of dissolved oxygen in water. Generally, oxygen has poor solubility in water, which has a negative effect on fish growth and plant yields.

Almost $200,000 in new funding from the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Water Quantity and Quality Program may expand researchers’ understanding of how nanobubbles could improve aeration and oxygen supplies.

Under the grant, Samir Khanal of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR ) Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, will apply the technology to these aqueous systems. His goal is to uncover new opportunities for improving fish and plant yields—with concomitant improvements in water quality.

Image from: University of Hawai’i News

“There is a pressing need to develop an alternative to the current highly energy-intensive conventional aeration,” said Khanal. “Nanobubble technology has a potential to revolutionize aquaculture and aquaponic systems, with higher productivity and resource recovery.”

Khanal was initially awarded CTAHR’s Team Science grant, which was critically important to obtaining preliminary data for his grant proposal to NIFA. 

“Thanks to the CTAHR and NIFA grants, we hope our findings will benefit existing Hawaiʻi businesses, as well as a new generation of growers, across the state and beyond,” Khanal added.

Ensuring Singapore's Food Security Despite the Odds

Image from: Reuters

As with most issues that impact national security in Singapore, it often seems that the odds are stacked against us.  Food security — access to safe and nutritious food — is a challenge on several fronts. 

Singapore is a small city-state with limited resources, with only 1 per cent of land available for food production, and over 90 per cent of food is imported from an increasingly disrupted world. The Covid-19 pandemic has further amplified the gravity of safeguarding food security.  The city-state has been proactively planning for long-term food security through the Singapore Food Agency’s (SFA) strategy of “three food baskets” — diversifying food sources, growing locally and growing overseas.  This approach has served the Republic well in securing a supply of safe food.

DIVERSIFIED SOURCING IS KEY

Singapore’s food importers leverage the nation’s connectivity and the global free trade environment to import from multiple sources in about 170 countries and regions worldwide.  Should there be a disruption to any one source, importers are able to tap alternative food sources and ensure supply remains stable. Lockdown measures brought about by Covid-19 underscored Singapore’s vulnerabilities to supply disruptions in food. 

It was not by luck that the Republic’s food supply remained stable and market shelves continued to be promptly restocked — it was the result of a deliberate whole-of-government strategy to diversify food sources. To keep the nation’’s diversified food supply lines intact amid the Covid-19 global pandemic, SFA worked closely with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) to monitor Singapore’s food supply situation. Together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these economic agencies worked with like-minded countries to maintain open trade links.

LOCAL PRODUCTION AN IMPORTANT BUFFER

SFA drives innovation in local farms with the ambitious goal of producing 30 per cent of Singapore’s nutritional needs by 2030 as part of our “30 by 30” plan.  To meet this goal, we need a holistic and long-term approach to space-planning, boosting agri-food technology and developing local agri-specialists. To facilitate and support the establishment of high-technology and productive farms in Singapore, SFA tenders out land based on qualitative criteria such as production capability, production track record, relevant experience and qualifications, innovation and sustainability.

In addition, a masterplan for the greater Lim Chu Kang (LCK) region, spanning about 390ha of land, will be undertaken in consultation with stakeholders over the next two to three years.  The redeveloped LCK agri-food cluster will produce more than three times its current food production.

Building on the above efforts to grow Singapore’s high-tech agri-tech sector, SFA will continue to partner with the Economic Development Board and ESG to attract best-in-class global agri-tech companies, as well as to nurture promising homegrown agri-tech companies into local champions and help them to expand overseas.

EXPLORING ALTERNATIVE, UNDERUTILISED SPACES

Urban food solutions are expected to play a key role in global food security.  While there are progressive enterprises operating out of farmlands and industrial estates, some agricultural game-changers are also taking root in unconventional areas — indoors, on rooftops and in underutilised spaces.

SFA worked with the Singapore Land Authority to introduce an urban farm at the former Henderson Secondary School site, which was transformed into Singapore’s first integrated space comprising an urban farm, childcare centre and nursing home within a state property.  The farm space within the site was awarded in May 2019 to social enterprise City Sprouts, and it has become a vibrant destination for the young and old to learn about urban farming and enjoy a relaxing day out.

Citiponics, the first commercial farm located on a multi-storey car park in a residential neighbourhood, harvested its first yield of vegetables in April 2019.  In September 2020, another nine sites atop multi-storey car parks were awarded for urban farming. 

The successful bidders included proposals for hydroponic and vertical farming systems with a variety of innovative features, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain technology and automated climate control.  These sites have the potential to collectively produce around 1,600 tonnes of vegetables annually.

Image from: Ciitiponics

TAPPING TECH

The Agriculture Productivity Fund (APF) supports local farms in their capability development and drive towards higher productivity.  Through APF, SFA co-funds the adoption of farming systems to better control environmental variables, test-bed technologies and boost production capabilities. Between October 2014 and September 2020, a total of almost S$42 million has been committed to 115 farms.

The Covid-19 pandemic presented greater impetus to speed up local food production capacities. In September 2020, SFA awarded S$39.4 million to nine companies under the 30x30 Express Grant to quickly ramp up food-farm outputs over the next six months to two years. With advanced robotic and digital systems increasingly being used in farming, Singapore’s vegetables farmers have also become innovative agri-engineers and specialists in their own right.

With support from the 30x30 Express Grant, urban farming engineering solutions firm Indoor Farm Factory Innovation will set up an indoor vegetable farm with a vertical integration growth system up to 8m in height in a fully controlled and pesticide-free environment.  The farm will leverage artificial intelligence farming systems integrated with IoT monitoring, dosing irrigation and an advanced environmental control system to achieve optimum growing conditions all year round.

Seng Choon, a chicken egg farm that has been in business for more than 30 years, has also proved itself a modernist in its operations.  The company uses a computer that scans eggs to ascertain if they are clean; while feeding systems, temperature controls and waste cleaning systems have been automated with SFA’s support. Singapore’s efforts at ensuring food security would not be complete without support from consumers.  To boost recognition of local produce among consumers, SFA brought the industry and public together to create a new “SG Fresh Produce” logo. 

Farmers have been using this emblem on their packaging since August 2020. A website was also launched to provide a trove of information on locally farmed food. While the Covid-19 pandemic has led to import restrictions, it also helped to accelerate support for local produce. With public support for local farmers and other key measures, Singapore can beat the odds in ensuring food security in this ever-evolving, ever-disrupted world.

Farming Fish in the Sky

Image from: Hakai Magazine

Sometime soon, Apollo Aquaculture Group will have one of the world’s largest vertical fish farms up and running in Singapore. Though construction has been delayed by COVID-19, the farm, once complete, will scale eight stories. Crucially, says the company, it won’t only be the farm’s height that sets it apart from the competition.

The high-tech facility will produce up to 3,000 tonnes of hybridized grouper, coral trout, and shrimp each year—with an efficiency, measured in fish per tonne of water, that is six times higher than established aquaculture operations in the Southeast Asian city-state, says spokesperson Crono Lee.

In doing so, the company hopes to become a major contributor to an ambitious plan to boost the food security of the small island city-state, which currently imports 90 percent of its food.

According to Ethan Chong Yih Tng, an engineer at the Singapore Institute of Technology who is not involved with the company, this stacking of fish farms is one of the key initiatives that geographically small Singapore is looking at to achieve its ambitious “30 by 30” target for food security—to produce 30 percent of its nutritional needs locally by 2030.

Founded in 1969, Apollo isn’t a new arrival to aquaculture in Singapore. Since the 1970s, it has been breeding ornamental fish across its 300-odd farms in the region. But when Eric Ng took over the family business in 2009, he was quick to diversify into producing marine fish as food, borrowing methods from operations in Germany, Japan, and Israel, says Lee. The outcome was a three-story farm in Lim Chu Kang, a rare green spot on the outskirts of Singapore. That aquaculture facility has been in operation for nearly a decade.

Each level of the Lim Chu Kang operation has two 135-square-meter tanks supplied with seawater by a system that filters, purifies, monitors, and recirculates water through the farm. As a result, only around five percent of the water needs to be replaced when contaminated by effluent from the fish—though Lee says the goal at both the new and existing facilities is to reduce that to zero using aquatic plants that clean and treat water naturally. That’s in contrast to significant levels of waste at Singapore’s traditional onshore pond farms, where farmers routinely clean out and replace entire tanks.

Image from: Apollo Aquaculture Group

In nearly 10 years of operating the Lim Chu Kang farm, which produces up to 200 tonnes of fish per year, the company has built up meticulous data sets on how to increase yields, says Lee—data they will apply to the new, larger facility.

“We understand the amount of water required, the condition of the water, and the amount of feed—measured down to a single gram per cubic meter of water. As a result, we’re able to produce fish in a much shorter time frame, at the right size for the market,” says Lee.

The decision to build this system up, rather than out, is a response to the lack of space in the Asian city-state. “We’re a very small country, and it’s very difficult to secure land,” says Lee. “So rather than building sideways, and expanding horizontally, why not expand vertically?”

Ever larger onshore fish farms is not the only approach the city-state is using to reach its 30 by 30 goal, however. In late 2019, for example, an offshore fish farm opened about five kilometers off Singapore’s Changi Point Ferry Terminal. Using a closed-containment system, it produces around 166 tonnes of barramundi, red snapper, and grouper each year across four tanks. The system “effectively isolates the fishes from the seawater when the quality of the surrounding water turns poor,” says Yih Tng. The self-contained system offers the control of Apollo’s vertical farm without the initial outlay on expensive land, or the high power costs.

Though Lee insists Apollo’s new eight-story farm will be economically competitive with traditional fish farms, high operating costs remain one of the primary reasons that commercial vertical closed loop fish farms remain limited globally.

In the United States, the majority of farms represented by the Recirculating Farms Coalition are outdoors, and much smaller than the Singapore operation, says founder and executive director Marianne Cufone. “That means we’re not as dependent on artificial inputs, such as temperature controls,” she explains.

“A lot of the larger systems sacrifice some of the natural benefits of [recirculating] systems in that they use a lot of energy for cooling, for heating, and for the circulating pumps. That’s not to say these outweigh the benefits, but a smaller, well-designed system can be extremely eco-efficient versus some of the larger-scale ones.”

The increased operational costs of a large facility translate to the price of the product: a 150-gram pack of Apollo’s ready-to-cook hybridised grouper fillet will set a customer back around US $12—roughly double the price of a frozen red grouper on sale at Singapore’s biggest grocer, Fair Price.

However, Cufone adds, large enclosed fish farms are becoming more prevalent in North America and the rest of the world. Few places is that growth more urgent than in Singapore—a fact only exacerbated by the spread of COVID-19.

“COVID-19 has exploded the awareness of [food insecurity] exponentially to local Singaporeans, and right now there’s a big shift in thinking toward local production,” says Lee. A shift that Apollo plans to take full advantage of.

The Future of the Food Supply Chain Lives on a Rooftop in Montreal

Image from: Lufa Farms

The world’s biggest commercial rooftop greenhouse sits atop a former Sears warehouse in a semi-industrial northwestern quarter of Montreal. Early every morning, staff pick fresh vegetables, then bring them downstairs, where they get packed into heavy-duty plastic totes along with the rest of the day’s grocery orders.

Tablets loaded with custom pick-and-pack software tell them where to put what: This basket has lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, plus some chicken, eggs, and milk. The next one has eggplant, cashew Parmesan, tomato sauce, fresh pasta, and vegan ground round crumble. Whatever Luca doesn’t grow in its four greenhouses comes from local farms and producers, mostly from within 100 miles.

This is a modern foodie’s dream: a tech-forward online shop full of locally grown, pesticide-free, ethically-sourced products at reasonable price points, delivered once a week to either your doorstep or a local pickup point in your neighborhood.

It’s stunning to think Lufa was founded by two people who’d never even grown a tomato before, let alone sold one. “We said, ‘Instead of learning how the food world works, let’s just come up with what we feel the food world should be,’” says Mohamed Hage, 39, who cofounded Lufa with Lauren Rathmell in 2009.

To them, it looked like this: rooftop greenhouses that bring agriculture into cities. No pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Composting their green waste. Selling direct-to-consumer the same day the food is harvested. Capturing and reusing rainwater. Reusable packaging. 

That’s exactly what they now have—and they feed a portion of Montreal, the second-biggest city in Canada, with it.

Image from: Lufa Farms

Back in the warehouse, workers poke at their tablets, checking off items as they’re packed into the boxes.

Customers—Lufavores, as the company calls them—typically place their orders a few days before delivery through the online store, dubbed “the Marketplace,” which Lufa built from scratch in 2012. That’s how Lufa’s suppliers know how much product to provide: They get forecasts first, then final order numbers, through their Lufa software. Some items, like frozen meat, can be delivered to the warehouse once a week. Others, like bread, arrive fresh every day.

Artisanal Montreal bakery la Fabrique Arhoma started supplying Lufa with bread and pastries about six years ago, co-owner Ariane Beaumont tells Fortune. Today, they hand-make 6,000 individual items a day for Lufa. Beaumont said Lufa now accounts for between 30% to 40% of her commercial sales; since pandemic shutdowns, a lot of the product destined for restaurants got redirected to Lufa. “They’re an exceptional company. I don’t know how they do it,” Beaumont says. “And they pay the fastest, too.” 

Technology is the underpinning of Lufa’s success, and the owners know it.

“We see ourselves as a technology company, in the sense that we solve with software,” Rathmell, 32, says. They didn’t really have any other choice. To fulfill that dream they had back in 2009—years before COVID-19 forced most grocery stores to enable online shopping—they had to do it themselves. 

“Nothing off-the-shelf can be applied to what we do, because it’s so complex,” Rathmell notes. “We harvest food ourselves; we gather from farmers and food makers throughout the province; most of it’s arriving just in time throughout the night to be packed in baskets for that day, and every order is fully unique.”

Lufa now has a team of eight programmers working on software and systems that manage e-commerce, warehouse management, routing, customer relationships, supplier fulfillment, pick-and-pack, vendor payments, delivery ETAs, and more. 

Those technologies were tested on that fateful Friday the 13th last March, when Quebec and Canada each announced their first waves of COVID-19 lockdowns. People panicked, rushing to the grocery store to stock up on flour and toilet paper.

Online, new sign-ups for Lufa’s weekly grocery baskets exploded, and existing subscribers began ordering more than they’d ever ordered before—all while Lufa’s pickup points were shutting down. “We essentially doubled overnight,” Rathmell recalls. Lufa was forced beyond its operational capacity, and the cracks started showing in the systems and software that had, until that point, done a fine job getting the company by.

Lufa temporarily closed the website and opened a wait list. The staff analyzed the pandemic’s trajectory and how they had to adapt at each step; reconfigured their warehouse floor to station workers further apart; then relaunched at the capacity they could handle, gradually scaling each week until they hit their usual stride. Today, they’re humming along at 25,000 baskets a week.

Leading with tech helped make them nimble and strategic during those hairy early pandemic days, said Hage and Rathmell. After some recalibrations and new developments, their software and processes can now handle more customers, vendors, and processes—critical elements as the company continues to scale its greenhouse operations. In August of 2020, Lufa opened its fourth greenhouse, doubling its square footage. The four greenhouses combined produce 57,000 pounds of food a week. A fifth is planned for this year. 

“Our objective at Lufa is to get to the point where we’re feeding everyone in the city,” Hage says.

And after Montreal? They’re planning on a yet to be determined second site in the northeastern pocket of North America, ideally this year. “Our vision is to grow food closer to where people live, and grow it more sustainably,” Rathmell says.

Image from: Lufa Farms

Bringing high-yield crop production into cities is a smart answer to many modern challenges in environmental and human health.

Mark Lefsrud, an associate professor of agricultural and environmental sciences at McGill University, points out that embracing technologies like LEDs and automation to grow indoors and in urban greenhouses means shorter supply chains, better nutritional integrity, less food waste, and reduced vulnerability to climate swings. In cities fed primarily by low-carbon energy (hydroelectricity in Montreal’s case), indoor growing versus importation becomes even more of a no-brainer.

“I’ve been working in the controlled environment and greenhouse industry for 20-some years, and having a company like Lufa has brought a lot of attention to not just urban agriculture, but also the need for greenhouse production,” Lefsrud says, adding that Lufa’s success has prompted more government investment in the sector overall.

“The Quebec government now takes this as a serious venture system, which then means that the students that I’m training, and research we’re doing here at the university, now have employment and have the possibility of setting up their own system,” says the McGill professor.

That idea, of developing more vertically integrated food systems, is a passion of Hage’s—not only for the idea of cutting out production and transformation middlemen to improve profit margins, but also to improve quality, traceability, and ultimately the ethics of food production.

“You know, every time we talk to someone about it, we feel like it’s the ’80s, and we’re holding a big solar panel trying to convince the room that this is the future,” Hage says.

As the larger agricultural industry catches on to vertical integration, it seems Hage and Rathmell are no longer mad scientists with a crazy dream. Instead, they are the voice of reason—and a new generation of food.

As the larger agricultural industry catches on to vertical integration, it seems Hage and Rathmell are no longer mad scientists with a crazy dream. Instead, they are the voice of reason—and a new generation of food.

As the larger agricultural industry catches on to vertical integration, it seems Hage and Rathmell are no longer mad scientists with a crazy dream. Instead, they are the voice of reason—and a new generation of food.

Is AppHarvest the Future of Farming?

Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are red-hot right now, with investors clamoring to get into promising young companies.

In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Jan. 28, Industry Focus host Nick Sciple and Motley Fool contributor Lou Whiteman discuss AppHarvest, one such SPAC that is looking to disrupt the agriculture industry. Here are the details on what AppHarvest wants to do, and a look at whether the company represents the future of farming.

Nick Sciple: One last company I wanted to talk about, Lou, and this is one I think it's -- you pay attention to, but not one I'm super excited to run in and buy. It was a company called AppHarvest. It's coming public via a [SPAC] this year. This vertical farming space. We talked about Gladstone Land buying traditional farmland. AppHarvest is taking a very different approach, trying to lean into some of the ESG-type movements.

Lou Whiteman: Yeah. Let's look at this. It probably wouldn't surprise you that the U.S. is the biggest global farm exporter as we said, but it might surprise you that the Netherlands, the tiny little country, is No. 2. The way they do that is tech: Greenhouse farm structure. AppHarvest has taken that model and brought it to the U.S. They have, I believe, three farms in Appalachia. The pitches can produce 30x the yields using 90% less water. Right now, it's mostly tomatoes and it is early-stage. I don't own this stock either. I love this idea. There's some reasons that I'm not buying in right now that we can get into. But this is fascinating to me. We talked about making the world a better place. This is the company that we need to be successful to make the world a better place. The warning on it is that it is a SPAC. So it's not public yet. Right now, I believe N-O-V-S. That deal should close soon. [Editor's note: The deal has since closed.] I'm not the only one excited about it. I tend not to like to buy IPOs and new companies anyway. I think the caution around buying into the excitement applies here. There is a Martha Stewart video on their website talking up the company, which I love Martha Stewart, but that's a hype level that makes me want to just watch and see what they produce. This is just three little farms in Appalachia right now and a great idea. This was all over my watchlist. I would imagine I would love to hold it at some point, but just be careful because this is, as we saw SPACs last year in other areas, people are very excited about this.

Sciple: Yeah. I think, like we've said, for a lot of these companies, the prospects are great. I think when you look at the reduced water usage, better, environmentally friendly, all those sorts of things. I like that they are in Appalachia. As someone who is from the South, I like it when more rural areas get some people actually investing money there. But again, there's a lot of execution between now and really getting to a place where this is the future of farming and they're going to reach scale and all those sorts of things. But this is a company I'm definitely going to have my radar on and pay attention to as they continue to report earnings. Because you can tell yourself a story about how this type of vertical farming, indoor farming disrupts this traditional model, can be more efficient, cleaner, etc. Something to continue paying attention to as we have more information, because this company, like you said, Lou, isn't all the way public yet. We still got to have this SPAC deal finalized and then we get all our fun SEC filings and quarterly calls and all those sorts of things. Once we have that, I will be very much looking forward to seeing what the company has to say.

Whiteman: Right. Just to finish up along too, the interesting thing here is that it is a proven concept because it has worked elsewhere. The downside of that is that it needed to work there. Netherlands just doesn't have -- and this is an expensive proposition to get started, to get going. There's potential there, but in a country blessed with almost seemingly unlimited farmland for now, for long term it makes sense. But in the short term, it could be a hard thing to really get up and running. I think you're right, just one to watch.

Which Type Of Hydroponic System Is Better?

Exclusives From Urban Ag News

Chris Higgins

Hint: They are all just irrigation systems.

One of the questions that I get most frequently is, “Which hydroponic system is the best?”

I am fairly sure that my standard answer of, “it all depends” annoys most of the people I am speaking to.  From suppliers to growers and from researchers to hobbyists there is always a desire to know and understand which system is the best.

So why do I answer, “it all depends”?

Whether we are talking about nutrient film technique (NFT), deep water culture (DWC), drip irrigation systems, aeroponics systems, ebb and flow systems, or any other system we should agree that these are all just variations of irrigation systems.

Buffer capacity means security.  Buffer capacity means you can leave for a day without fear of losing the crop.

Next let’s talk about the systems suppliers and their sales representatives.  Suppliers of hydroponic systems will all tell you why theirs is better, but the conversation should really revolve around what factors cause their systems to fail.  Every system has a weakness.  Your crop, your budget, your facility and your geographic location will likely quickly highlight these weaknesses. 

A large variety of hydroponic systems all at once – Big Tex Urban Farms

So, how do you determine what system is best for you?

Here are the things you should know, think about and research thoroughly before you invest.

1. What crop are you going to grow? If you are planning to grow tomatoes, it’s very unlikely that you will want to invest in a nft system or a dwc system. The needs of your crop will help direct you into the right direction. Likewise, a closed loop drip irrigation system is unlikely to be the answer for lettuce production.
   
   

2. Know your budget. Your budget will play a major role in this decision making process. Do not only think about the upfront costs of the system. Make sure to include the operational and labor costs associated with running the system 7 days a week 365 days per year.
   
   

3. Know your environment. Each crop type will respond to these 9 environmental variables (see diagram) in different ways. As a grower your ability to manage these variables will be a primary indicator of your ability to achieve your target yields. The irrigation systems primary function is to help you control the 4 variables surrounding the root zone (see diagram 0.0 to understand the variables.) Your geographic location and crop will determine which of these variables are most important.
   
   

4. Truly understand the design. In the recent Urban Ag News article, “Important Tips For Designing A Hydroponic Production Facility” I discussed the importance of buffer capacity. Buffer capacity in your irrigation system plays some very important roles. First, it will help you manage your nutrients. Second, it will help your crop deal with variations in temperature. Third and most importantly, it will be a primary indicator of how much time you can spend away from your farm.
   
   

5. Figure out your maintenance and spare parts plan. Irrigation systems break. Irrigation systems get clogged. Irrigation systems need to be serviced and fixed. Make sure you understand everything from how to access the most vulnerable and weak parts of the system to how long it will take you to get replacement parts and what parts you should plan to carry in case of an emergency. Think about redundancy!

Labor is KEY! Consider every aspect of labor.  From the education requirements of running the labor, to the amount of labor needed to operate and maintain the system to the importance of labor needed to check on the system on a regular basis.
Budget • Scale • Access

Which brings me back to where we started.  Which hydroponic system is the best?  It truly all depends.  All we know for sure is that if a supplier tells you, “you can grow every crop in our system”, be concerned.  It might be true, but I can almost guarantee you that you cannot grow every crop profitably in their system.  If a supplier struggles to help you clearly understand and answer the questions posed in this article, look for a new supplier.  There are plenty that will. 

Finally, focus on building a professional network with experience in the commercial hydroponics industries.  Ask lots of questions and understand the full benefits and limitations of any system you choose. 

Final hint: Aquaponics growers use one of these systems as well.

International Webinar On Urban Farming - Soilless Cultivation

organised by the

Department of Botany, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA

in collaboration with

Universitas Bengkulu, Indonesia

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia

Industrial Technology Institute (CISIR), Sri Lanka

With the support of

CropG1 ,dFarms USA, Hydrilla, SAM Agro Biotech, SRC Malaysia, Sujay Biotech, Veggitech UAE and Urban Kisaan

on 27th January 2021, between 9 am to 1 pm IST.

Speakers are

1. A perspective of Hydroponics by Mr Vijay Bhaskar Noti, dFarm Inc., USA

2. Sustainable Farming with Multiloop Aquaponics by Mrs Mamatha, Hydrilla

3. Aeroponics: A versatile research tool in modern Agriculture by Dr Jagadeesh, SAM Agro Biotech

4. Diversity in Hydroponics by Prof. G. Sudarsanam, Sri Venkateswara University

5. Application of ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI In Hydroponics and Aeroponics by Dr M. Lakshmi Prasad, Sujay Biotech

6. Hydroponics Scope and Opportunities by Bhaskar Rao, VeggiTech, UAE

7. Plant Health in Soilless Cultivation: Management of Deficiencies, Diseases and Pests By Dr Purushottam Dewang, CropG1

8. Hydroponic Urban Farming in Malaysia under MITRA by Chandrasekar, Sai Ram Capital, Malaysia

9. Entrepreneurship in Urban Farming by Dr P. Sairam, Urban Kisaan

Please fill Free Registration form and submit using the following link

https://forms.gle/52WaVECrqpEFQh4w8

*eCertificates & webinar link will be provided to the registered participants only

*Organisers are not responsible for network failures

For more information please contact

Prof.G.Sudarsanam

Convener of the Webinar

Head, Department of Botany

Sri Venkateswara University

Tirupati -517503

E-mail: sudarsanamg@gmail.com

WhatsApp: +91-9989053632

Agri Matters Podcast: Interview With AquaFarms Africa Co-Founder On Empowering Women With Aquaponics

In the latest episode of the Agri Matters Podcast, we spoke to Wiatta Thomas, co-founder of ‍AquaFarms Africa, an agritech startup based in Conakry, Guinea. She told us about implementing aquaponics technology, a combination of fish farming and soilless vegetable growing, in Africa.

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In this ecosystem, the fish excrete waste that is converted by beneficial bacteria to nutrients for the plants, which purify the water in return.
 
"The focus of AquaFarms Africa was to locally produce fruits and vegetables that normally are imported because they're not able to be produced in Guinea," said Thomas. The produce would be sold to high-end restaurants and hotels that offer higher margins.
 
Aquaponics is also generally considered more efficient than conventional farming. It is more productive on a per square meter basis and requires 95% less water than traditional agriculture. It is also completely organic.
 
For the last nine years, Thomas has lived in Guinea and worked across West Africa in youth economic development, giving her a deep understanding of entrepreneurial ecosystems and promising agricultural value chains. She has also built a business incubator called Dare-to-Innovate. She actively promotes economic development and African diaspora investment in the continent, with agriculture being a priority sector.

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To Listen To The Podcast, Please Click Here

Here are some of the highlights from the interview:
 
Pinduoduo: How did the idea of AquaFarms Africa come about?
 
Thomas: What I found is that it's very, very difficult on the continent for young people especially to start agribusinesses, for several reasons. One is that there's a lack of capital. So the idea was that rather than just start an aquaponics farm ourselves, what we would do is create or design a franchise system. 
 
Pinduoduo: Why did you or your partner choose aquaponics?
 
Thomas: The main reason was that we needed a way to have a closed system that would allow us to control the temperature in order to produce some things that wouldn't normally grow in a tropical climate or very intense weather conditions. So aquaponics gave us a way to control the entire environment in which we're growing our produce.
 
(In the aquaponics system,) you can't put chemicals because it'll kill the fish. So automatically, you're going to have organic produce. And so it's really an all-natural system. We really wanted to recreate an environment inside of our greenhouses.
 
Pinduoduo: What kind of yield can we expect?
 
Thomas: One farm (12 by 12 foot) will produce somewhere around one ton of vegetable and fruit product that doesn't include fish product. We haven't included that yet in our total revenue system — it's more just to keep the system going. But we will be selling fruit shrimp and tilapia fish later on.
 
Pinduoduo: Do you work with local lending partners to provide loans to franchisees?
 
Thomas: Part of the loan system is provided by investments from the diaspora. Some of it is with partnerships with local banking systems that we've already started forging. So it's a combination of all of that. Because it's very, very hard for a young person to come off the bat and be able to get loans in Guinea. 
 
Pinduoduo: What are the training and technical support provided?
 
Thomas: We are building an app that we haven't deployed yet. But in 2021, we're going to be deploying it that will allow our franchisees to be able to monitor their system so all of the indicators, such as the nutrient levels, or the temperature in the system, through IoT devices that will be placed in their systems, and will be able to monitor or to track growing schedules, harvesting and planting with an app. 
 
Pinduoduo: Does this technology gives women more opportunities than traditional farming?
 
Thomas: It's actually more geared toward women. And the great thing is that because it's not as strenuous of work, and because it's in urban areas, we can give a lot more opportunities to women who are in urban areas and who are unemployed.

In case you missed our end-of-year newsletter, here's the link where you can find the best of Agri Matters podcasts of 2020. 
 
Agri Matters is a podcast about cutting-edge technology and innovation in agriculture. From scientists, venture capitalists to startup founders, we talk to the people responsible for bringing food from farm to table. Subscribe to Agri Matters on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other major podcast platforms.
 
For more stories about the latest in agriculture and technology, visit us at https://stories.pinduoduo-global.com/category/agriculture. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
 

Aquaponics Letter To The Biden-Harris Transition Team

January 7, 2021

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The Aquaponics Association has sent a letter to the Leadership of the Biden-Harris Transition team for the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce.

View the Aquaponics Letter to the Biden-Harris Transition

In the Letter, the Aquaponics Association requests that the incoming Administration consider three actions to support the growth of aquaponics: 1) fully establish the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production; 2) recognize new and emerging food production systems, such as aquaponics systems, as critical suppliers of food; and 3) ensure that aquaponics remains eligible for USDA Organic Certification.

Aquaponics will further establish the United States as a leader in sustainable agriculture and build a better future for generations to come.

Diving Into Aquaponics

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Majestic Terhune

21 DECEMBER 3, 2020

Tucked away in the Taylor Science Center’s greenhouse, a new aquaponics system brims with tilapia, lettuce, and other developing life. Built in 2019 by Hamilton’s Aquaponics Club, the system promotes on-campus food sustainability while also providing a space for students and faculty to learn about aquaponics. And with its accessibility, regular maintenance, and potential to expand with student interest, the system does just that.

Aquaponics, a method of raising crops and fish in an all-water, soilless environment, presented a fun challenge to Aquaponics Club co-founders Jonathan Dong ’21 and Robbie Rioux ’21. According to Dong, the club started with the aim of creating “a sustainable farming practice and system on campus that [community] members could maintain.” With members representing a variety of disciplines, including chemistry, history, and government, the club teaches students about animal and plant biology and practicing aquaponics.

After building the aquaponics system, Dong and Rioux populated it first with tilapia and lettuce, two of the easiest and most efficient products to cultivate in water. The 400-gallon system includes a 100-gallon tilapia tank, tanks that break down tilapia waste, and tanks that contain the plants. Nutrients from the tilapia waste sustain the plant life, and club members feed the tilapia daily. (The club’s adviser, Supervisor of Introductory Laboratories in Biology and Lecturer in Environmental Studies Jason Townsend, feeds the fish during breaks.) The $7,000 system was funded through Student Assembly.

“The thought is that we grow the food and give it to someone on campus or in the Hamilton community,” Rioux said. The Aquaponics Club donated the first batch of lettuce to students living in the Woollcott Cooperative and the first tilapia harvest to a family from the Utica Refugee Center. Rioux said the club hopes to eventually have the tilapia served in Commons.

In addition to the initial tilapia and lettuce, the club is looking to raise and grow other animals and plants in the system. The effort to expand reflects student curiosity about how aquaponics works. “We got a ton of students on campus with their own questions about the system that they want answered,” Dong said. Club projects include researching which tilapia breed, vegetable types, and flower species that grow best with aquaponics.

Since its founding in 2018, the Aquaponics Club has come a long way in both bringing aquaponics to Hamilton and recruiting members to maintain and learn about the system. Both Dong and Rioux expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to design and continue the project. “We transformed the greenhouse into our own space, and that was a lot of fun,” Rioux said. “Hamilton’s [has] been very supportive of having us in there and letting us do what we need to, so that’s been pretty great to be able to do.”

Superior Fresh Announces New Salad Variety: Citrus Splash

Superior Fresh is proud to unveil its newest salad blend: Citrus Splash. Filled with bright sunny citrus notes, this blend offers consumers a unique opportunity to expand their culinary experience. Citrus Splash brings more than exceptional flavor to the salad bowl. Paired with our non-GMO, organically fed Superior Fresh Atlantic salmon, the possibilities are endless.

“We have always been about doing things a little differently,” says Todd Linsky of Superior Fresh. “We have created a balanced organic ecosystem by raising the cleanest, healthiest Atlantic salmon using organic practices and principles and applying our proprietary organic farming methods to grow the best tasting organic salads and greens you have ever eaten. We do this while raising the bar on sustainability with practices that give us the ability to grow lettuce using less than one gallon of water. And what’s really impactful is we actually reuse 99% of all water.”

Todd goes on to say, “You do not choose organic aquaponics as a growing method by sticking to what is established. You do not commit to 800 acres of soil regeneration if you are doing it like everyone else. We are taking the responsibility of being one of the largest USDA certified organic salad operations very seriously. Our customers expect us to bring our best using thoughtful innovation – every time – whether that be in the way that we farm or with what we grow.”

Citrus Splash is sure to make a splash in the produce pool. Look for it on the shelves of your local grocery store and inquire directly for wholesale, retail, and food service options.

Mon 19 Oct 2020

INDIA: Aquaponics Unit Gets Off The Ground In Ludhiana Vet Varsity

Was Inaugurated by Sanjay Dhotre,

Union Minister of State For Education,

Communication And Electronics And IT

CHANDIGARH

Oct 14, 2020, HT Correspondent
Hindustan Times, Ludhiana

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The aquaponics unit in Ludhiana. (HT photo)

Sanjay Dhotre Union minister of state for education, communication and electronics and IT, on Wednesday virtually inaugurated an ‘Aquaponics vertical farming system’ developed at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU).

The system was established by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, under the collaborative project funded by the ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITY), GOI.

Dhotre emphasized on the need to modernize food production sectors to double farmers’ income and enhance climate change resilience among the farming community.

He said that aquaponics is a promising technology for organic farming and there is a need to publicize such technologies for the wellbeing of the environment and humans.

Inderjeet Singh, the vice-chancellor of GADVASU, said that aquaponics involves a synergistic combination of aquaculture and hydroponics to promote vertical farming with enhanced nutrient utilization efficiency through recycling of water between the two components to produce fish and vegetables together.

He added that it offers potential future solutions to global warming, with only 10-12% water and land requirement compared to traditional fish and vegetable farming systems, fulfilling the concept of ‘More crop per drop’.The V-C said that the facility will help GADVASU take up required R&D for its optimized utilization under climatic conditions of the state, especially for stakeholders with small landholdings.

In the keynote address, Hemant Darbari, DG, C-DAC, said that the automated aquaponics system will serve as an excellent R&D and demonstration provision for skill development in aspiring stakeholders of the region to produce more food from less land.

Jyoti Arora, special secretary, MEITY, spoke on making the facility sustainable through innovative techniques to attract more youth into the technology-driven agriculture sector.

The project in charge, Jaspal Singh, joint director, C-DAC, and his team implemented the project at GADVASU with Meera D Ansal, dean, college of fisheries, and Kulbir Singh, principle olericulturist, PAU, under the leadership of JPS Gill, director research, GADVASU.

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Ultra-Local Brooklyn-Based Aquaponics Operation Upward Farms Has National Agenda

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October 14, 2020   

By Cliff White

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Originally founded in 2013 as Edenworks and previously known as Seed & Roe, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.-based Upward Farms takes an ecosystem-based approach to its aquaponics operation, which produces microgreens and “mercury-free, antibiotic-free, and hormone-free” striped bass, rated as a “Best Choice” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program. In an interview with SeafoodSource, Upward Farms CEO Jason Green described the company’s whole ecosystems as “a paradigm shift in productivity and scalability compared to status quo production methods dependent upon synthetic chemicals.”

The company has had success selling its greens into Brooklyn grocery outlets including Whole Foods Market but has not yet sold any fish commercially. Green said the company has a “20-year vision to create a sustainable future for the food system by advancing the importance of the microbiome in both indoor and outdoor agriculture.” Upwards Farms recently closed on more than USD 15 million (EUR 12.8 million) in new funding, led by an investment from Prime Movers Lab.

SeafoodSource: 

Why was striped bass chosen as the complementary species in Upward Farms’ integrated aquaponics system?

Green: 

We’re an aquaponic farm – we grow fish and plants together in a closed ecosystem. It’s important for us to use a freshwater species instead of saltwater so we can directly utilize the waste from the fish as fertilizer for our leafy greens production. The striped bass hybrid that we use is a freshwater fish that retains the quality and character that eaters of striped bass love – clean, firm flesh with just the right amount of richness and skin that crisps up beautifully. Striped bass is also a fish that has a strong local following in the New York area, so there’s a baseline level of consumer awareness.

So while chefs and consumers in New York are already familiar with striped bass as a wild local fish that is available seasonally, we sought to complement that with a sustainably farmed alternative that can be sourced year-round.

SeafoodSource: 

Can you say more about the company’s new facility and your other expansion plans?

Green:

 Our new headquarters facility is based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and will be a fully automated vertical farm with aquaponic production. It will serve as our commercial facility, distributing leafy greens and fish to grocers across the New York City area. Our new headquarters is also where we’ll continue to conduct research and development to advance our technology and develop new products.

Longer-term goals include opening a farm outside every major metropolitan area, near distribution centers that serve the grocers for that area. This will enable us to cut down on how far food travels. This is a key objective of ours, given that 95 percent of U.S. leafy greens are trucked in from California or Arizona, and 90 percent of fish is imported from other countries. All those miles between farm and form compromise quality, safety, and cost. In cutting down food miles, we can create a more transparent, stable, and safe supply chain.

The importance of local production is something that COVID has really underscored. Add on top of that the risks posed by climate change, especially this year with record wildfires in the American West. In agriculture, as we’ve seen in medicine and other industries related to the public health response, the importance of short, stable supply chains is being recognized now more than ever.

SeafoodSource: 

What role will the fish side of things play in the company’s future development?

Green: 

The fish play an important and symbiotic role in our process. The fish are the source of fertilizer for our plants and the fuel for the microbiome that drives our competitive advantage. Our microbiome allows us to deliver higher produce yields, a disease resistance product, and superior food safety by preventing the growth of foodborne bacteria like E. Coli. In the long term, we anticipate our fish being a major source of revenue in and of itself.

Given that fish farming is the largest and fastest-growing food segment globally, and that local fish is the number-one consumer demand, yet 90 percent is imported and 40 percent is mislabeled, we see this as a blue ocean opportunity, pun intended.

SeafoodSource:

 What is the fish-growing capacity at the farm?

Green

 We’d like to pass on this as we’re not currently sharing this information publicly.

SeafoodSource: 

When will they be commercially available?

Green:

 Our fish will be commercially available in New York City by mid-2021.

SeafoodSource:

 Has the company’s Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Best Choice” rating been affected at all by the changes being made to the Seafood Watch Program?

Green:

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program, striped bass continues to be a “Best Choice” when farmed in indoor recirculating tanks with wastewater treatment, like our aquaponic production.

SeafoodSource:

 How will the recent hiring of former RBC Capital Markets Managing Director and Co-Head of Real Estate Investment Banking John Perkins as Upward Farms’ new chief financial officer affect your company’s goals and fundraising efforts?

Green:

 With our purpose of enabling everyone to nourish their body, family, and the planet, we are fortunate to have John join our team and together achieve massive scale and impact. John's unparalleled talent and experience, particularly in capitalizing the real estate and infrastructure that transformed the American food supply chain, will help Upward Farms attract the right capital partners, grow rapidly, and realize the full potential of our vision and technology platform.

Photo courtesy of Upward Farms

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Cliff White

Executive Editor

 cwhite@divcom.com

 @CliffWhiteNews

October 16th to 18th - Awesome Features of The First ONLINE Aquaponic Conference

Interactive Sessions, Networking &

industry Experts Sharing Exciting Developments

In The World of Aquaponics

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You're not going to want to miss this.

We want this conference to maximize your connection and engagement with other attendees. We're featuring both live and recorded speakers and by reserving a ticket you can access all these recordings until the end of the year!

You'll find sessions ranging from aquaponics in prisons, experts in decoupled aquaponics, STEM educators, and international discussion panels!

Get a greater understanding of this rapidly evolving industry and connect with the experts today.

Reserve Your Ticket ›

The Aquaponics Association

© 2020 Aquaponics Association 

Cultivating The Future Starts Next Friday!

Hello Aquaponics World,

The 2020 Aquaponics Conference, Cultivating the Future, starts next Friday, October 16. This year, you don't need plane tickets or a hotel room!

The Conference features OVER EIGHTY SESSIONS including talks, panel discussions, virtual tours, breakout discussions, and more! Dr. Wilson Lennard, (pictured above) will join us live from Australia on Friday night to discuss the state of aquaponics research! Check out all three days of schedules:

Friday Agenda

Saturday Agenda

Sunday Agenda

Are you a K-12 teacher, home grower, or part of a small business or small farm? You may be eligible for STEM / Community Super-Saver Discount Tix!

Learn more:

STEM / Community Ticket Info

All Conference tickets include:

• Access to all content in all four Learning Tracks – STEM Education, Commercial, Community, and Research

• Access to 100% of conference video files online through the end of 2020

• Access to all conference slide presentation files through the end of 2020

• Access to Aquaponics Virtual Vendors featuring the best products and services in the aquaponics industry

• Access to Direct Messaging, Breakout Discussions, Chat Rooms, Live Polls, and Virtual Cocktail Hour to interact with growers from around the world!

• Ability to ask LIVE QUESTIONS to Aquaponics Experts!

We hope to see you there so we can advance aquaponics together!

Brian Filipowich, Chairman

Aquaponics Association

Conference Schedule; See All 80 Sessions!

Hello Aquaponics World,

We are so excited to publish our Agenda for The 2020 Aquaponics Conference, Cultivating the Future! The Conference features OVER EIGHTY SESSIONS from October 16-18. Brunno (pictured above) will be helping us unlock all that iron in our aquaponic water! Read more:

Friday Agenda

Saturday Agenda

Sunday Agenda

Early Bird Tix are only $149 and expire October 2, save $100!

Early Bird Tickets

Are you a K-12 teacher, home grower, or part of a small business or small farm? You may be eligible for STEM / Community Super-Saver Discount Tix! Learn more:

STEM / Community Ticket Info

All Conference tickets include:

• Access to all content in all four Learning Tracks – STEM Education, Commercial, Community, and Research

• Access to 100% of conference video files online through the end of 2020

• Access to all conference slide presentation files through the end of 2020

• Access to Aquaponics Virtual Vendors featuring the best products and services in the aquaponics industry

• Access to Direct Messaging, Chat Rooms, Live Polls, and Virtual Cocktail Hour to interact with growers from around the world!

• Ability to ask LIVE QUESTIONS to Aquaponics Experts!

We hope to see you there so we can advance aquaponics together!

Brian Filipowich, Chairman

Aquaponics Association

Former Shipping Container Maker Uses Them To Farm

September 25, 2020

The bounty is sold to supermarkets in the crowded city

of 7.5 million that is forced to import most of its food

HONG KONG (AP) — After a career-making shipping containers that transport freight around the world, Arthur Lee has stayed with them in retirement, using them to raise crops and fish.

Operating on a rented 1,000-square-meter (quarter-acre) patch of wasteland in Hong Kong's rural Yuen Long, Lee's MoVertical Farm utilizes about 30 decommissioned containers, some decades old, to raise red watercress and other local vegetables hydroponically, eliminating the need for soil. A few are also used as ponds for freshwater fish.

The bounty is sold to supermarkets in the crowded city of 7.5 million that is forced to import most of its food.

As one of the world's great trading hubs, Hong Kong is a rich source of the sturdy 40-foot (12-meter) -long boxes.

Lee uses the latest technology to monitor his crops. The controlled environment inside the boxes uses a hydroponic drip system to deliver nutrients, eliminate the need for herbicides and pesticides, and reduce risks from pests, small animals, and bad weather. Temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide levels, nutrient mixtures, and light can all be monitored and adjusted.

And if Lee loses his lease, he can load his container farm onto trucks and move it elsewhere with minimal disruption.

Shipping container farms have taken off in countries around the world with wildly varying climates, from freezing to tropical, and on scales ranging from single containers to dozens. Many are located in urban areas where fresh produce can easily be delivered to stores or directly to consumers. While vegetables, fruits such as strawberries, and freshwater fish are among the most popular, some growers have turned to raising high-protein insects as a food supplement.

Controlled environment agriculture is just one use for shipping containers, both new and old. In poorer nations, they are often used as shops with the added advantage of locking up tightly at closing time. In more affluent nations, they have been turned into tiny homes, painting studios, coffee shops, backyard sheds for hobbyists, and even swimming pools. Online, containers can be bought for around $4,000, with basic home conversions going for $30,000 or more.

Lead photo (AP Photo/Kin Cheung): Arthur Lee, the owner of MoVertical Farm, feeds his fish inside a shipping container in Yuen Long, Hong Kong's New Territories.

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Aquaponics Association Presenting The 2020 Aquaponics Conference, "Cultivating the Future", Online Oct. 16-18

The Aquaponics Association is presenting The 2020 Aquaponics Conference, "Cultivating the Future", October 16-18, to connect growers from around the world and expand the practice of aquaponics.

Conference Website: https://aquaponicsconference.org/

The theme, "Cultivating the Future", signifies that the Conference will explore our Vision for the next generation of aquaponics. Live Panel Discussions will convene experts in all fields of aquaponics to discuss overcoming the roadblocks to more aquaponic growing.

The Conference will feature four Learning Tracks: Aquaponics in STEM Education; Community Aquaponics; Aquaponics Research; and Commercial Aquaponics. The Conference will feature over 50 sessions including Instructional Lessons; Virtual Tours; Live Panel Discussions; Live Q&A Sessions; Guest Breakout Discussions; Keynote Presentations; and even "Virtual Cocktail Hour"!

The Conference will be held on the Run The World virtual events platform. This interactive platform features live sessions; live breakout discussions, direct messaging, and group chats between all attendees; and live speaker polls so that guests can actively participate in the Conference.

Early Bird tickets are only $149 for the full three-day conference - $100 savings. The ticket includes access to recordings of all conference content and all-conference slide presentations through the end of 2020.

The Aquaponics Association is a nonprofit, Member-based organization that expands the practice of aquaponics through education, advocacy, and connection. The Conference will continue the Association's Mission of expanding the practice of aquaponics.

contact: Brian Filipowich

info@aquaponicsassociation.org

Blue Nalu, Aero Farms Highlight Sustainable Food Technology

Photo: AeroFarms

08.03.2020

By Sam Danley

NEW YORK — Entrepreneurs are utilizing new technologies to bridge the gap between where food is grown and where it is consumed.

San Diego-based BlueNalu, Inc. is pioneering cellular aquaculture, a process by which living cells are taken from fish and grown using culture media to create seafood.“

(Seafood) is one of the most vulnerable supply chains on the planet,” said Lou Cooperhouse, co-founder and chief executive officer at BlueNalu, during a virtual Town Hall hosted by accounting and consulting group Mazars. “Global demand for seafood is at an all-time high. The problem is that our supply is increasingly diminishing.”

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Lou Cooperhouse, co-founder and chief executive officer of BlueNalu, Inc.

A variety of overlapping factors, including illegal fishing and overfishing, warming oceans, plastic pollution, habitat damage, toxins, contaminants, and inconsistent quality of freshness have contributed to the diminishing supply, Mr. Cooperhouse said. Other issues like mislabeling, occupational hazards, and price volatility add to an already stressed system.“

Prices are going higher over time and are anticipated to grow increasingly higher in the years to come,” Mr. Cooperhouse said, adding that BlueNalu has been working to bring down the cost of its formulation to reach price parity with conventional seafood products.

As it scales, the company could potentially offer a price discount, he said.BlueNalu recently expanded its production and R&D capabilities with a new, 38,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in San Diego that includes a pilot-scale production plant. Eventually, it aims to build similar plants around the world, each with the capacity to produce enough cell-based seafood to feed millions of residents.“

Today we might be importing seafood 7,000 miles, 9,000 miles from Southeast Asia to New Jersey, and that's a 30% bycatch with a 60% yield at the foodservice operator level,” Mr. Cooperhouse said. “In our case, we're making a product with no head, no tail, no bones, and no skin. It’s just the filet.”

The pilot plant will help BlueNalu bring its first products to test markets within the next 12 to 18 months. The company currently is focused on several species that typically are imported, overfished or difficult to farm-raise, including mahi-mahi, tuna, red snapper, and yellowtail amberjack

The idea is to complement or supplement rather than disrupt the current supply, Mr. Cooperhouse said.“

Why would we disrupt an industry that’s doing well or focus on a species that currently isn’t an issue?” he said.

A similar mindset is behind Aero Farms, a Newark, NJ-based sustainable indoor agriculture company.“

Seafood is traveling thousands of miles, and it’s the same for produce,” said Marc Oshima, co-founder, and chief marketing officer at AeroFarms. “How can we bring farms closer to where people are and bypass what is a very complex supply chain?”

The company repurposes unused industrial spaces into indoor farms that use 95% less water than conventional agriculture and a fraction of the land space.

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Marc Oshima, co-founder and chief marketing officer at AeroFarms“

We're misting the roots with the right amount of water and nutrients in a very targeted way,” Mr. Oshima said. “It leads to a faster-growing process and is much more efficient.”

AeroFarms’ main focus is baby greens, which are supplied to foodservice operators and sold to retailers under the Dream Greens brand.

Because they are grown independent of season and weather, the products offer more consistent quality, price, and year-round availability, Mr. Oshima said.

The company also is collecting data to optimize crops for taste and nutrition.“

We’re thinking about what the consumer is looking for and delivering on a lot of those benefits,” Mr. Oshima said.

Along with keeping transportation to a minimum, increasing yield, and offering more nutritious produce, indoor farming may complement traditional agriculture by accelerating seed development.“

Typical seed breeding is about a seven-year process,” Mr. Oshima said. “With our growing process, we can have up to 30 harvests in a year. Each one is a learning opportunity.”

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SUPPLY CHAIN PRODUCE SUSTAINABILITY SEAFOOD

BARBADOS: Future of Farming: Push For Aquaponics

From left: Member of Parliament for St Thomas and Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Cynthia Forde; Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey; Daledrey Barrow receiving her Certificate of Completion in Aquaponics from Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Indar Weir. The first training of ten participants at the Aquaponics Demonstration Farm took place pre-COVID .

07/25/20

Barbados can boast of having its own Aquaponics Demonstration Farm at Adams Aquafarm in Hopewell, St. Thomas.

This has been made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

As part of the FAO’s Blue Revolution Project, Adams Aquafarm, owned by Kristina Adams, received funding and training to develop the demonstration farm.

The funding also supports the training of 30 entrepreneurs who are interested in developing an aquaponics small or medium-sized business in Barbados, as well as the training of ten schoolteachers. Aquaponics is the integration of land-based fish farming (aquaculture) and soil-less plant production (hydroponics) with the fish waste providing nutrients for the plants, while the bacteria and plants help to clean the water for the fish.

During the official launch yesterday, Adams said that the funding has allowed her to showcase a farming system that is 100% suited to Barbados while utilizing local supplies and advanced technology to grow local products.

“It is a great opportunity for farmers and young people who wish to move forward with an innovative and productive form of agriculture,” she expressed, also revealing that the farm currently produces tilapia, specialty lettuce, sweet peppers, tomatoes and a wide range of herbs.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey said that the project provides great benefits to the country as it supports new and innovative farming opportunities for small-scale and medium-sized businesses.

“In aquaponics, you have the opportunity to have multiple sources of income – your vegetables and fish. You can grow more in smaller spaces, so in a constituency like St. Michael South where I don’t have a lot of space, my people could have the opportunity to make multiple sources of income in a small space. And I understand that the products grow faster and they are organic and uses less energy,” he pointed out.

“Everything about this project excites me and everything about this project is transformative and it puts power back into the hands of ordinary people.”

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Indar Weir said that he was impressed, and recalled that when he launched the Farmers’ Empowerment and Enfranchisement Drive (FEED) that he made it clear that many of the young farmers coming into agriculture would have an opportunity to get involved in aquaponics.

“I strongly believe that with the limited land resources that we have in Barbados it is important that we start to understand that the conversation in agriculture is changing. And so therefore when I see a project like this it demonstrates to me that people are out there doing things and not sitting waiting for them to happen.”

Member of Parliament for St Thomas and Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Cynthia Forde said that she is extremely proud of what Adams has been able to accomplish.

“I am so proud to see that she has sought to do training. Sometimes we have our ideas and we hold on to them. And I want to say that there is nobody prouder than I am this morning to see a woman at the helm of this initiative. And we really need to let women in agriculture and other aspects of development get the exposure and the credit they deserve,” she stressed.

This Blue Revolution Project is part of a larger effort of FAO to support aquaculture development in the Caribbean. Under the project and the Climate Change Adaptation of the Eastern Caribbean Fisheries Sector Project (CC4FISH), FAO is funding demonstration farms across the Caribbean and continues to promote the adoption of aquaponics techniques and capacity building exercises in the region.

Regional Project Coordinator at FAO - CC4FISH, Iris Monnereau, further emphasized that the agriculture sector in the region needs to be more resilient, more innovative, and more diverse to attract youth and create employment.

“This was already very important before the challenges of COVID-19, but it is especially important now. We are therefore very happy that this project makes a tiny contribution in creating more resilient, diverse and innovative livelihoods in Barbados,” she expressed.(TL)

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