Aquaponic farming: The sustainable way of fish and vegetable production

Aquaponic offer 2 benefits in one: It produces delicious fish, like Tilapia and also produces fresh vegetables by converting the fish poop to organic fertilizer. Especially in development countries, aquaponic can be a new way of farming, in areas of low soil fertility or in urban areas.

Mint and onions growing in the media beds.

Delicious fresh mint has a high market price in Sierra Leone. It can be used for fresh tea and for salads.

Parsley grow excessevly in the NFT system. It produces more than we can eat. Parsley can be fed to the Tilapia

Growing a papaya tree in aquaponics media bed

Good bearing tomato plant. In a few weeks we harvest another 10 - 15 tomatoes.

Spring onions growing in the NFT system

Also a carrot is growing in the NFT system.

Urban aquaponic fish and vegetable farming in Sierra Leone

Growing local green leaves (cren cren) in the NFT system

80 holes NFT system for continous production of leafy greens

Tomatoes thriving in the aquaponic system. The system deliver enough nutrients for the nutrient demanding tomatoes.

We have planted a young cocoa seedling, which we found behind our house. As we can see, the tree has started to produce fresh leaves. This is the first cocoa tree that grows in an aquaponic system.

Peanuts growing well in the aquaponic system

The tilapia have breeded and now we have many youg fish in our tank.

Ginger is growing

Tomatoes growing through NFT system

Young pepper seedlings

The aquaponic system. A total of 8 square meter growing space and 250 liter fish tank. We have put the NFT system on top of the gravel beds to save space and maximise growing space.

Tilapia and catfish produce the nutrients for the plants to grow

Looking forward to harvest sweet water melon in a few months.

Urban aquaponic system shows fast growth of vegetables

Sweet bell pepper showing fast growth. 2 more weeks till harvest!

The urban aquaponic system with various vegetable varieties.

Water melon seedlings coming up.

Shade net for aquaponic system enhances plant growth

The net filters the light and lowers the temperature which creates a good growing environment for the plant.

As the dry season approaches, the sun get extremly hot so therefore plants need to be protected. In the coming week we will create a shade tent for our aquaponic system. 

A shading net creates a microclimate and prevents the strong sun to harm the plants.

Urban aquaponic farming for food security

Fish tank and media bed with plants growing

Adding a new species to the system: A catfish, "Schilbeidae" family

8 sqare meter growing space: Media beds and NFT-system

Urban aquaponic farming: Soilless and landless, but productive!

Aquaponic system comes back alive after re-stocking with additional Tilapias

 After only 4 weeks of growth, the peanuts in the aquaponic system starting to flowering, which initiates the growth of the nuts below the surface. A few more weeks left and we will harvest some of them already.

We have added a few more Tilapias catched in nearby streams in order to improve the performance of the system and the nutrient supply. We still don´t have enough fish, therefore we need to go out again and catch more... The need of a professional fish fingerling supplier is crucial for Sierra Leone!

A big chili pepper plant showing already fast growth. Other plants like spring onions, ground nuts, tomatoes and cucumbers are also sprouting up.

Tomatoe plant showing strong growth in soiless media beds. (gravel)

The veranda system: We will reshape and extend the system in the coming days and include a NFT-system to it. In total we will have a 500 liter system, powered by a 10w pump on a total area of 15 square meters growing space. When fully running, the system shall produce at least 50 USD income per months. The overall costs of the system, including the labour, is expected to be around 300 USD. We will put the whole system under a locally constructed greenhouse to enhance growth. Stay tuned for upcoming developments!

 And a very important factor in aquaponic production is the human resource: Our aquaponic ladies Rachel...

...and Hawa are talking care of the plants. We heard plants grow faster if you talk to them nicely... ;)

Lessons learnt: 
The aquaponic system we recently started showing slow growth due to lack of fertilizer. We stocked 25 Tilapia fingerlings in a 200 liter barrel of which the majority had a fungal infection of the fish sails. The health of fingerlings is crucial in aquaponics and a threat to the wealth of the whole system. As there are no commercial fingerling producers in Sierra Leone, we had to rely on local fishermen catching fingerlings in the nearby fresh water streams. Out of the 25 fingerlings, only 4 survived. This amount is too small to produce enough nutrients for the system. We will re-stock in the comming days, and this time carefully watch for any signs of infection or desease. Although we lost many fish due to the desease, we can still see a healthy filtration and a clear water... We will take it from there and improve on the system within the next days.

 3 out of 4 fish which survived the infection

 Groundnuts (peanuts) doing well in the aquaponic system

Spring onions from the first start and a new pepper plant. 
 In the next days we will include a sump tank as well as a NFT-pipe system and a floating raft system to our system. We want to maximise the output of this 10 watts aquaponic system by producing as much plants as possible. Stay tuned!
 

 Barrel aquaponic system with spring onion cutting

 3 days after planting, spring onions show fast growth

 Aquaponic in urban Freetown

Fast growth of spring onions in the aquaponic system

3 days after planting spring onion cuttings in the aquaponic system, we can already see a fast growth in the plants. An aquaponic system take time for all useful bacteria to establish, so in the first 3 months we will mostly plant leafy greens like salad and spring onions and gradually shift to vegetables like tomatoes and sweet pepper, once the biological balance is established in the system. Stay tuned for upcoming updates on growth.