Essay On Aquaponics

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Aquaponics is the integration of hydroponics (soilless system for crop production) and aquaculture (aquatic animal farming) to simultaneously produce plant and animal products. In an aquaponics system, aquatic animals excrete waste, bacteria convert ammonia and nitrite to nitrate, and plants absorb nutrient rich water and improve water quality for aquatic animals. History Hydroponics The first ever published work on growing plants without soil was by Francis Bacon in his book named “Sylva Sylvarum” in 1627. Water culture became a popular research technique after that. In 1699, John Woodward found that plants in less-pure water sources grew better than plants in distilled water. German botanists Julius von Sachs and Wilhelm Knop, in the years 1859-1875, led to the development of the technique of soilless cultivation by their discoveries. Initially this culture was known as solution culture.…show more content…
The lower water usage in an aquaponic system would lessen the cash spent on purchasing water for harvest. As aquaponics also require less fertilizer, the farmer would need to spend less on that too. Since the systems can be stacked, a farmer can produce more sustenance with less land. Aquaponics are likewise very low maintenance; a cost-benefit analysis study concluded that for a large system (6 beds and 3 KL fish tank)*, less than thirty minutes a day is required for maintenance, the vast majority of which is feeding and harvesting the fish and vegetables. The less time a farmer spends on maintenance, the more systems he or she can have, and therefore the more products he/she has to sell. Closing the loop makes good economic sense by supporting local agriculture we will keep our money re-circulating in the local economy. Plus, local food is fresher; tastes better, and makes us more secure than relying on imported

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