Systems in place to boost fish-vegetable farming

By PISAI GUMAR
LAE-based Tasman Tanks Ltd has developed two aquaponic systems for backyard and indoor fish-vegetable farming.
One of the two units is for farming fish alone and the other is for integrating fish and vegetable farming.
The innovated aquaponic units are aimed at saving costs involved in fishing and vegetable farming, ensuring consistency in supply and enhancing food security for families.
Tasman Tanks, in collaboration with Morobe Fishery Cooperative Cociety (MFCS) Ltd plans to harvest the first batch of tilapia fish grown in the first aquaponic farm this Friday.
Tasman Tanks manager Peter Howard said that the method would help local farmers with an easy way to integrate fish and vegetable farming instead of using a plot of land many times for the same purpose.
According to Howard the method is fast yielding, generates nutrients and supplies itself, and the farmer supplies 60 grams of fish feed per tank each day and harvests a plate-size (fish) after seven months.
“It’s a close circuit system in which the water from the fish pond is supplied to the vegetable beds atop and the plants take up the nutrients from fish poo (manure) and release clean water back to fish for oxygen,” Howard said.
The fish-vegetable method can also cater for farming prawns.
He said that the vegetables, especially herbs like coriander, parseley, spinach and mint including cucumbers would yield quick.
Howard said that the advantages of the farming method were that it involved no water wastage, processed its own nutrients and provided a source of revenue from fish and vegetables.
“If the farmer owns more than five such units, he or she will harvest consistently depending on the intervals of fingerlings inserted in the ponds.”