The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, through the Aquaculture Group, and the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Canary Islands Institute of Agrarian Research (ICIA), are collaborating with IDEAqua Fish and Aquaponic SL in the implementation of a pilot system of Aquaponic production. It is a pioneering initiative in the archipelago that fuses a horticultural hydroponic culture, i.e. growing plants without soil or on a substrate instead of on agricultural land, with aquaculture production, that is, the breeding of fish.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Waters of the Canary Islands, Narvay Quintero, the Vice President for research, innovation and transfer of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPG), Jose Pablo Suarez; the President of IDEAqua Fish and Aquaponic, Francisco Robaina; the director of infrastructure for the Group of aquaculture (ULPGC), Rafael Gines, and the President of the Canarian Institute for Agrarian Investigation (ICIA), Juan Francisco Padron, visited La Estación farm, of the ICIA, where this company, which emerged from the research developed by the ECOAQUA Institute of the ULPGC, develops this work through a collaboration agreement aimed at promoting the knowledge and development of aquaponic production systems.
In its first phase, producers will grow lettuce - as it has a fast crop cycle and offers good results in hydroponic culture - and tilapia - a freshwater fish that stand out for its good adaptation to these systems. In future phases, producers expect to produce other plant species, also for commercial purposes.
To do this, producers use tanks to grow and feed the fish that generate nutrients that remain in the water. This solution, which is in permanent circulation, passes through a bio-filter that helps these nutrients become assimilate forms that are then used by the plants in their development, and then return to the tank system, completing the cycle. The faeces generated by the fish are collected through a decantation system, which can have different uses, such as, serving as a basis for composting.
The so-called rejection solution, which comes from the cleaning of the tanks and bio-filters, represents only 2%, and can also be used as irrigation water for other crops once the solids in suspension it contains are removed.
It is an example of a circular economy that virtually generates no waste, as the waste it generates can be reused, and hardly requires external inputs apart from the food given to the fish.
During the years of the agreement, in addition to setting-up the system based on the prototype designed by IdeAqua, the work group will carry out tests with different plant species providing the fish with different diets. In addition, they will also conduct a product and market quality study of them, always in collaboration with the Aquaculture Group of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Source: newspress.es