Aquaponics farming a saviour of environment
ALEXANDRA – Aquaponics is not a labour-intensive farming method and is kind to the environment, especially in the midst of climate change issues, says Sihlahla.
Alex residents that want to grow various crops for self-sustenance or to sell but are challenged by the unavailability of land need to venture into aquaponics farming.
This is the message from Inmed SA programme director Unathi Sihlahla, who runs the Inmed Aquaponics Social Enterprise. He said it was a venture that sought to cut the barriers that prevented people from getting into farming due to the unaffordability of land.
In a crowded place such as Alexandra, space becomes an issue and aquaponics farming was most ideal for the township’s space- challenged environment, he added, and they can use the farming system to feed their own families or use it for income generation purposes too.
Speaking in an interview with Alex News at the unveiling of the project, Sihlahla said the many advantages of aquaponics farming included it could be done in one’s backyard with minimal space.
“Aquaponics farming only uses water for your plants. There is no digging, no constant cultivation, no weeding, no addition of any form of manure whether organic or fertilizer, no use of pesticides to keep ‘goggas’ away and no form of any hard labour at all,” Sihlahla said.
Sihlahla said they were currently in negotiations with government to ensure that aquaponics farming could be made available to all. “The only challenge so far is the equipment to set up the farming process as you might also need some fish tanks to use the water from the fish to water the plants that purely grow on the nutrients from the fish water.
“The same water is cleaned up using pebbles when it is diverted to the plants and then recycled back to the fish. The system only uses 10% of the water as it continuously recycles it between the plants and the fish, making the farming process environmental-friendly especially in the fight against climate change and the need to conserve our water resources.”
A group of members of the Deaf Empowerment Firm, which was founded by Alex Msitshana, graduated from the Inmed SA Aquaponic Social Enterprise training programme to enable the organisation to start aquaponic farming activities of its own.
