Mpeda takes aqua-ponic road to high-value seabass farming

Kochi-based Mpeda [Marine Products Export Development Authority] is encouraging high value seabass fish farming through aqua-ponics. Aqua-ponics combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic organisms in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic, or mutually beneficial environment.

Mpeda’s Aquaculture Regional Centre here has taken up a demonstration project in Palakkad, Kerala, for nursery rearing of seabass along with plants in an aqua-ponic system.

This variety of fish is considered a high-value species, fetching ₹400-500 a kg for fish weighing 700 gms and above. M Shaji, Deputy Director of the centre, told BusinessLine that a small family with three cents of land could raise a good quantity of fish and vegetables such as tomatoes, spinach, etc through this method with minimal input cost.

Farmers are reluctant to culture this brackish water fish because of the lack of availability of the required size fingerlings to stock in fishponds. In a bid to tackle this, the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture, the research wing of Mpeda, started producing seabass fish seedlings of 2-3 cm in size at its hatchery in Nagapattinam, which are grown to fingerling size (10-15 cm) in nursery units for stocking in culture ponds.

In normal aquaculture, excretions from organisms being raised can accumulate in the water causing harm to them because of the increasing toxicity. However, aqua-ponics not only produces more with less space, but also cuts down on the toxic excretions.

The irrigation and plant fertilising is carried out automatically by pumping waste water from fish ponds. Besides, it uses only 10 per cent of the water needed for traditional farming, and without inorganic fertilisers or pesticides.

In aqua-ponics, fish are kept in tanks and their waste collects at the bottom. This waste is pumped through a filter as ready food for plants. The plants are set up in grow beds which allow the roots to dangle in water absorbing nourishment from the food waste while the leafy heads absorb sunlight.

Mpeda’s regional centre in Kochi has taken up the demo programme in Nanniyode Panchayat in Palakkad. It plans to take the demos to every district in the State to motivate farmers, Shaji added.

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