Tag Archives: Aquaponics

Aquaponics in Barbados: A Unique Opportunity for a Small Island Developing State

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Submitted by Damian Hinkson

Barbados is in a unique position to take advantage of the benefits of aquaponics. As a small island developing state, our socioeconomic situation is perfect for rapid deployment of this innovative technology. Unlike larger countries with sunken costs associated with traditional food production and industrial agriculture, Barbados has the advantage of starting fresh with aquaponics.

However, despite the many benefits that aquaponics has to offer, it is sad to say that we often fall into the trap of simply copying other countries instead of being original and taking advantage of the opportunities that we have. In this case, we are missing out on the opportunity to lead the way in the adoption of aquaponics as a main stream solution for sustainable food production.

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Charting the Path to Food Security!

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Submitted by Baird’s Village Aquaponics Association (BVAA)

This is an overview of the plan for the building of a privately owned aquaponics industry capable of providing 100% of Barbados’s locally consumed herbs and vegetables; We invite you to our open day on June 10th time 7 till 11 or 1 till 5 to take a close look at the future of local farming – click on the link to find the farm using Google Maps – https://www.google.com/maps?cid=9583706197124082053&hl=en&gl=gb&shorturl=1 . The Aquaponics machine is the open sourced solution for mainstream adaptation of a food production system independent of the global industrial agriculture complex. We must reach 2 tipping points in this journey to achieve market acceptance. 1500 persons must adopt hobby level systems and 700 persons must adopt semi commercial systems. I will tell you why below but first let me tell you why aquaponics is the solution.

The true cost of food is subsidized by outside market forces, what we pay for food is considerably less than the cost to produce the actual food. Farming is very difficult because farming is actually in a different sector of the economy from all other goods and services this is called the primary economy and this is evident in the fact that farmers pay retail for inputs and sell produce at wholesale price, the reverse of the secondary economy cash flow model which is to buy low add a profit and sell high.

Aquaponics works because of two factors, the first factor is because it is water based farming so the physical work of moving and processing manure on the farm is transferred from inefficient manual labor to precise electrical work of water pumps offering an exact monetary value for the work input to a farming system. When coupled with solar powered systems the payment amounts are below the current rates charged by the electrical company. The second factor is because 100% of the fish waste is reused as the main input for plant production. The efficiency of having two financial models operating with one input is what gives aquaponic systems the ability to operate without subsidies. And it has been proven to be culturally accepted mainly because of highly localized distribution networks.

Using a standardize 350 gallon component with a small footprint allows for little altering to the land and because of the water based nature of aquaponics there is little pollution therefore it is the only farming model capable of operation in residential areas. By using one standard 350 gall container it makes the complex dynamics of aquaponics adaptable by ratio, the basic one being 1 fish component to 4 plant components. It takes a minimum of 206 components in a network to produce minimal viable cash flow per operator.

It’s a long term investment; we have to sell 1500 hobby level systems to raise the resale value of the component to 50% of original cost. At this first topping point the market will be consuming enough fish feed to lower the cost to $1 per pound. Hobby level systems have a quick ROI of 4 years because they are competing against organic supermarket prices. The lower feed input cost will in turn be lowering return on investment for commercial investors in the wholesale market to 4 years making way for larger scale investment in the industry. At this secondary tipping point of 700 full time operators a computerized network with a centralized processing and supporting system can accurately predict 3 months of food production, securing sales.

Aquaponic Farming is Growing

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Submitted by Damian Hinkson

AquaponicsWith a decade of experience in Aquaponic(AP) farming I am very happy to see AP systems now being created all over the island. The benefit of producing vegetables using fish manure rather than land animal’s or chemical fertilizers are many but the most attractive is the fact that your irrigation and fertilization is done automatically. Raising fish is virtually labour less In AP because as soon as the fish create waste in the water stream, it is pumped to a filter and broken down then quickly distributed to the plants where it is used as fertilizer. When compared to the physical labour, time and space involved to cleaning pens, pilling up manure until it has broken down then applying that to the soil it is easy to see why more people are interested in the instant results of AP systems.

Perhaps the biggest driving force of AP is timing, many in Barbados with vision will see in the near future domestic food production is the only way to be safe and secure. Along with the fact that we can now source cheap plastic and pumps that cost less than a fridge to run, interest is currently at an all time high and we at Baird’s Village Farms have worked hard to remove as many barriers to AP farming in Barbados as we can.

Without a doubt the science behind AP system design and the actual building of a system requires that the individual be intelligent, a handy person and also have the time and tools to dedicate towards the project. Also location specific information is not easily available to those who have not heard about us as yet. So we have designed a “ready done” AP system and in the process made it cheaper than if you were to put together a similar sized system.

For now AP is still new to Barbados and we need you to get the information out there to the people that matter. Please watch and share the slideshow and also give us some feed back in the comment section below as this is what makes us better and encourages us to keep going.

Understanding Aquaponics and Growing Food

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Submitted by Damien Hinkson

We need to produce food.

We need to produce food.

My first true commercial farm upgrade to aquaponics (AP) is complete, the first of many more as the commercial farmers are rushing to exploit the labor saving qualities of AP. This type of farming comfortably puts you in the .3 to .7 worker per acre range, amazingly, with no additional labour skill sets required. This reduction in labor is replaced with small, constant energy usage.

When upgrading, priority is to utilize materials from on-site, the aim is to keep this as simple and cost effective as possible. Most pioneering farmers have usable materials from past projects, check. I wouldn’t go as far as to advice on system design because all systems, programs and growers are unique; however experience and good system design when converting are crucial for the continuity of the farm.

As a long time consultant on all things aquaponic and farming in general there are certain dynamics I have become acutely aware of in regards to farm and farmer for a project to be a success. I have some important ones list out here.

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If Farming Were Easy…

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Submitted by Damian Hinkson

Without the microbiology farmers will have to use more and more, chemical energy to get the same amount of produce.

Without the microbiology farmers will have to use more and more, chemical energy to get the same amount of produce.

If farming were easy we would all be doing it! after all Food is our most basic need. So it stands to reason that farming should be profitable. However that’s not the case. I will point out why using 3 points below and then explain one solution to make farming profitable in Barbados.

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The First Steps to Food Security

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The following extract about Aquaponics submitted by Ready done

Innovation Adoption Lifecycle - Wikipedia

Innovation Adoption Lifecycle – Wikipedia

Aquaponic farming dates back to the Aztecs but due to the currently available combination of cheap plastics and Magnetic drive pumps it was recently re-discovered and improved upon as a viable organic farming method. The system is designed to hold fresh water fish in tanks, in conjunction with plants in large plant pots. Fast draining Coconut fibre is used as an alternative to soil for when the fish’s water is pumped through the plant pots. The coconut fibre act like a battery holding the manure as the plant’s roots uses it yet it constantly re-charges from the fresh fish waste in the water stream as it passes through. The raw fish waste is converted by natural bacterial process that results in completely fertilized plants and clean water for fish.

Our mission is to bring aquaponics to the masses, to have AP systems as common place as the refrigerator, which, though it seems far fetch at this time is possible because AP produces food while a fridge only stores it. Ongoing efforts to get households growing food using aquaponics has allowed us to position ourselves as market leaders in the small but rapidly growing Aquaponics community on the island. We have acquired an intimate knowledge of what the industry requires and are seeing a dramatic increase of interest in the system by vastly diverse groups of people.

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Aquaponics Versus the Pet Dog

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Submitted by Ready done

Aquaponics is the food production system the world is upgrading to from conventional industrial farming. The major problem it solves is that potassium fertilizer taken from mines and used to help crops produces 40% more fruit. It has worked well for the last 100 years but it is a finite resource and will be exhausted soon enough. When it is gone we will see a 40% drop in food production. The world will be a changed place.

Aquaponics does for fertilizers what biofuel does for gasoline. It fast tracks the potassium cycle from taking 1000’s of years to form underground then to be extracted to mere weeks from fish food. Aquaponics in its simplest form is watering your potted plants with aquarium water and letting the water drain back into the aquarium. This plant/fish relationship held and controlled in manmade containers takes excellent care of both the fish and the plants because the fish manure contains nutrients which the plants use. This is good news for anyone wanting to grow food who has never kept fish. The water begins in the fish tank and drains back into the same fish tank therefore only what the plant needs is taken. The rest of the water goes back to the fish and when the plant uses up the fish waste the water gets clean so you don’t have to clean your aquarium no matter how much you feed the fish. The water is not allowed to get stagnate and is kept moving with a small pump to put in oxygen that is needed to keep plant roots and fish alive.

On all accounts Aquaponics is a better way to grow food domestically because this is a closed system and you have no losses to nature. Farmers currently have problems with heavy rain fall washing away fertilizer before plants can take advantage or in the dry season. They are not sure how much fertilizer to use because when it is dry the fertilizer doesn’t spread out enough creating hot spots which kill plants if new fertilizer is applied and the old one is not used up. The surrounding earth absorbs the water you put to your plants making very large water bills Aquaponics takes away all that guess work. And fish don’t need as much time and care as conventional pets. No taking for walks or washing down pens. Fish are also silent and don’t smell, they really are the least socially disruptive animal that can be domesticated and this is only made possible with recent advances in cheap plastics and low energy water pumps. This is probably why our culture never kept any tilapia even though we have advantages in our rain fall patterns because in the dry season we get enough rain to sustain the small needs of an Aquaponics system. We also have the constant temperature needed for optimal fish growth. This means Aquaponics should be a permanent fixture in your household income revenue stream the modern equivalent to a kitchen garden.

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Adoption of Aquaponics Systems the Food Solution for Barbados

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Submitted by Ready Done

'6,889 early adopters of Aquaponics systems needed'

‘6,889 early adopters of Aquaponics systems needed’

I got home yesterday and heard the unmistakable voice of my first crush Jacqueline Yvonne ‘Jackée’ Harry, there she was standing on that same step in a tight blue dress as curvy as l remember her. My daughter was watching the show 227, she likes the 80s era, as she puts it “ancient times”. This is the meaning of the information age. The generation X crew have a difficult time understanding how differently we accessed information. When I was her age 227 was after my bed time hour,  My only opportunity to watch Jackée was on my visit to the bathroom, and I would walk as slowly as possible the ten foot distance to ogle Jackée.

I also ran home from school to watch Sesame Street. I had to fight sleep to watch  X Files and Allo Allo. This generation knows nothing about waiting for information, the feeling of not having a conversation about last night’s TV show because you missed it is foreign to them . They get the news as it happens in detail, we only heard about bad car accident and saw a pic from a distance in the newspaper the next day. Our children get video of the accidents sometimes 5 minutes after it happens.

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We Need to Integrate Waste Disposal and Agriculture

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Submitted by Readydone

Composting

Composting

Gale and her family paid a visit to my farm at Bairds village recently. She was the usual type of visitor. She proceeded to share that she has done some research and is very interested in agriculture for food production at home. It is the usual type of thing I hear. Many people  are curious about aquaponics and are surprised to find a working system in Barbados and always take the opportunity and visit. I always welcome, this particular visitor. Gale asked all the usual questions but when she asked – why is there not a culture of domestic food production in Barbados because we have very conducive weather , the answer hit me.

We have free garbage collection; it’s that simple, free disposal of all our organic waste means we throw away that valuable resource that should be used to make compost we are sending it straight to the landfills. Compost is the absolute key to every productive kitchen garden, it has the ability to sustain a large population of micro life forms in the soil, without it you get very poor results. When you sweep your house you sweep out dirt, it has all the constituents of soil yet you can sense it has no life and could not even grow elephant grass, then look at real soil, same materials but the micro heard is alive and active, so it sticks together, it holds water, and most importantly grows food. These microscopic critters take care of our plants root zone and provide the conditions that promote active plant growth.

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Local Farmers Crying Out For Leadership

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Submitted by Ready Done

David Estwick, Minister of Agriculture

It is obvious by grouping farming with small business that the late Prime Minister David Thompson wanted us to elevate our current view of farming to a more business like model. With the help of our leaders we can quickly make this dream a reality, we only need some basic systems put in place to guide the agri-business sector.

To be successful any business needs up to date information about the market in which it operates to ensure the best possible plan/strategy is created. Being a small farmer myself – looking for information on Aquaponics in Barbados – I became painfully aware  of the many factions of authority governing agriculture on the island. My efforts came up empty. I was frustrated at the large number of different agencies involved in the sector, and more so, how they operate completely independently of each other.

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Baird's Village Aquaponics Project, A Case Study For Homegrown Success

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Submitted by Ready Done

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Baird's Village Aquaponics

Many of us are of the opinion that our little island is in need of good leaders (not saying we don’t currently have any). The Barrows and Adams type leaders who had a clear vision and the will power to give us what was needed for 50 years and even beyond. Our new leaders have so many problems on their plates I can understand why it seems as though there is no medium term plan. This makes it imperative that each of us do more to guide this island in the right direction and not leave such a heavy work load on our leaders.

Looking at the most advanced societies and economies worldwide to see what we can aspire to be, we see they are mostly industrial. Unfortunately Barbados cannot be an industrial based economy because of the obvious lack of natural resources and our small size. What we need is to look forward to a post-industrial type society. In my recent quest to get a glimpse of this almost “utopian” world of what Barbados could be, I came across Ivan Illich. In his work he refers to the concept of a convivial society and explained in some detail the prospects of what the next level of society can look like. Such a type of thinking is based on a Euro-centric view but can apply to Barbados in my opinion.

We are hearing a constant call for more small businesses to be established and greater innovation shown. Our leaders recognise the need to harness the people talent/power to make this an efficient society.

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Aquaponics, A Viable Option For Backyard Farming In The Heights And Terraces Of Barbados

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Submitted by Ready Done

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The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever – Psalm 93

With average rainfall topping thirty year levels. We are seeing “floods” of water every where. Not all destructive, many of you have rain water harvested but feel it is not effectively utilized. It is surprising that an island that has no large bodies of surface water has invested very little in micro-level fresh water conservation.

All the necessary hardware components are available around the house or ultimately the store. Cheap water tanks, reused containers like bath tubs and pipe fittings combined with energy efficient water pumps have made post-industrial food production technology  affordable for the home owner.

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Growing Cheaper And Healthier Vegetables Using Aquaponics

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Submitted by Ready Done

Damian Hinkson demonstrating to St. James secondary students an Aquaponics System at work

If you ever thought you were paying to much for vegetables, keep reading.

We pay unjustified amounts of money for vegetables just because it is more convenient than finding the time and energy to grow our own. There is a solution for those of us that don’t want to pay so much for vegetables, don’t care enough to garden yet want the benefits of fresh, chemical free vegetables?

It’s called Aquaponics: The next time you and a friend are near a fresh water fish whether its in an aquarium or a pond we all now have and idea worthy of a conversation. Getting these ideas to the people willing to use them is what will make healthy cheap food a reality.

The simplicity of the technology is deceiving, after all it is really a miniature river ecosystem held in a man made container. Using fishy water to grow plants sounds very basic because when you feed fish all the water born waste builds up and you  have to clean it eventually. Usually we water soil-based plants with the dirty water. What makes Aquaponics so convenient is the fact that you can use plants to clean that water and return the very same water for the fish to dirty it up again making a never ending cycle.

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Bard’s Village Aquaponics Association Points To Aquaponics As The Way Forward To Food Security

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Submitted by Ready Done

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Imagine your plate without rice, macaroni or English potato. How long could you survive in a crisis situation? We import 93% of the staples we consume daily. Luckily there is about two months foreign reserves to buy food, good news for the supermarket owners. When there is a hurricane threat we all know how fast those reserves will dwindle.

Unless you can produce your own food you will get uncomfortable really fast.

Sixty years ago we were a food secure nation, the culture allowed for this because time and land were available therefore the average person could grow their own food. Currently full time employment and urbanization has made conventional backyard farming uneconomical, on a larger scale it is possible to profit from farming but the uncertainty of a market to sell produce, the high cost of labour and agro-chemicals, combined with the lack of any technological advances make local farming for profit difficult.

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