Aquaponic- Alternate Agricultural Approach for future (A4F)

Bangladesh is losing agricultural land at a rate of nearly 1% per year which duly raises a concern for food security of the burgeoning population. The more dreadfully the fertility of land is degraded every year the need of new production-technology which require less space through less wastage of resource became burning necessity. 

Aquaponics can play a key role enabling local production, fresh, free of pesticides and healthy with short supply chains which is tested, emission-free, sustainable in nature. In this technology, the water consumption is about only one-sixth and the production is 8 times more per acre compared to traditional agriculture. Aquaponics is a form of agriculture that is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish in recirculating tank) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that can be done anywhere. From a nutritional standpoint, Aquaponics provides food in the form of both protein (from the fish) and vegetables.

Bangladesh stands in 81st position in Global Food Security Index according to Economic Intelligence Unit. In Bangladesh, widely used agricultural chemicals, pesticides are main source of air, water and soil pollution and it is so much hazardous to humans and livestock. Most of our farming community are not aware of this harmful impact. An ever-rising population means that demand for everything from water and land to energy and food is increasing rapidly. However, due a combination of factors, ranging from unsustainable agricultural practices to climate change, our ability to meet such needs is limited. 

Our “Aquaponic” solution will serve organic agriculture that would be a suitable agricultural production system to ensure harmonization between human welfare and sustainable development. Organic products have good potential for export, the local market can also be important since many consumers are interested with food quality and food safety and eager to purchase with premium price with proper certification and labeling. Applications of aquaponics are almost endless as it does not require fertile soil or large water inputs and so can be practiced almost anywhere. Our solution will directly contribute toward adequate healthy food production in spite of scarcity of farming land and water in Bangladesh. 

Organic food is often viewed as healthier, more ethical, and tastier than food grown through traditional process. Organic food contains increased levels of human-consumed key nutrients. In Bangladesh, organic food is becoming popular among the consumers of city area. Our main target will be city dwellers as consumer- farmers will be our client in form of grower/ supplier. We will practice horizontal collaboration with the local community through a sustainable business model and training. We will upgrade their own knowledge to make the economy circle around the stakeholders. We will try to build the ownership among them so that they can carry forward the business in future with our support.

The solution can help us to reduce huge population pressure in urban cities which is a result of migration from village due to unemployment. Our project can help them to generate adequate income from their very living place and demotivate them to leave for urban area.
The project will try to make aquaponics commercially more viable by modelling, building and testing the concept that, it is hoped, is water and energy efficient, yet able to keep optimum production conditions for both the horticulture and aquaculture part.

To make a commercially viable product we will provide support on:

1. Joint development of a sustainable business model, 
2. Local training on production system and communication strategy.
3. Joint construction of the aquaponic unit.
4. Workshop on business planning and business management
5. Hands-on field management training
Besides, we have planned to provide them toll-free “hotline” to serve them with their queries regarding the aquaponic production system throughout the project tenure.

Aquaponics is a typical urban agriculture, a combination of two different cultures: aquaculture or farming fish (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) and hydroponics or crop production in soil less substrate (cultivating plants in water). It is the symbiotic relation between the fish and vegetables where fish provides fertilizer to the plants, in return plants help to purify the wastewater as they use the nutrients where the fish live in.

Our pilot had a house of 30x20ft under the sun-shade of thick transparent polyethylene to protect the plants. There were four rows of half drums for plantation. At one side 60-liter containers or jar has been used as those are deeper to provide the vine plants as they need more nutrients to grow and fruiting. Each half drum required brick lets or pebbles to hold the plants. All the half drums were connected with an irrigation pipe  and water discharge line. We sat up two 500-liter water tanks over the vegetable bed to store water from the biological filter which will go to the vegetable bed and water from vegetable bed will directly go to the fish tank, and that was done manually 4/5 times a day.

Based on this low-cost methodology (as we used local ingredients), we will be using both horizontal and vertical system in our project. Automation will be introduced: GSM sensor-based water pumps will be used to supply and circulate water to/ from fish tanks to plant tanks, solar power system will be powering up the electrical units to run the system. Bio filter will be used to eliminate environment pollution. The wastage will be re-used as bio-fertilizer for other purpose. We are taking an expert in aquaponic from Bangladesh Agricultural University who is pioneer in aquaponic in Bangladesh and under his guidance and supervision we will execute all the knowledge and management activities among the farmers.

Aquaponics applications could reduce costs and provide higher quality products over conventional agricultural techniques. Here are some informativeness of our solution: 

1. Water consumption is drastically lower than in conventional agricultural farms. Aquaponics uses up to 90% less water than conventional methods since all water is recycled in the ecosystem. The 10% we ‘lose’ is due to poor transport, evaporation and plant transpiration. This is a crucial change compared to any conventional farming technique
2. Aquaponics requires a fraction of the energy used in conventional agriculture.
The amount of energy used in aquaponics farms is 70% to 92% less than the amount of energy used in conventional farms. Moreover, we will use the “gravity” to bring the water from the fish tank’s water reservoir to plantation system with zero energy.
3. Produce grown using aquaponics is chemical free. There can be no chemical pesticides used or the fish would not be able to survive. Therefore, any aquaponics produce you consume is guaranteed to be fresh, organic, and chemical free.
4. Since there is no need for soil in aquaponics farming and water is recycled through the system, aquaponics farming can be used in areas with droughts or areas with a little arable land.
5. We will use GSM sensor-based system to monitor and control the water flow and other activity in the whole system.
6. Solar power will be used to make the system energy efficient and to save valuable grid electricity and cost.

Since our solution will provide adequate knowledge, awareness and capacity build-up to farmers to adopt aquaponics production system in their very locality on their own land, they will be able to produce emission-free, organic food which will require less land size, lessen the wastage of fresh water and generate adequate income from their production, we believe that our solution will address the problem degraded agricultural production due to scarcity of land and adequate water. Our solution is new in nature and for this reason we will go through in-depth process of monitoring and enhancing behavior change among the farmers and consumers.

Aquaponics, essentially the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, is all about growing fish and vegetables in an attractive, productive, integrated system. Applications of aquaponics are almost endless as it does not require fertile soil or large water inputs and so can be practiced almost anywhere regardless rural or urban setup. It has the potential to make a ´remarkable´ contribution to future global food security.

This project will try to make aquaponics commercially more viable by customization, modelling, building and testing this concept that, it is hoped, is land, water and energy efficient, yet able to keep optimum production conditions for both the horticulture and aquaculture part.

Overall, we intend to support economic development and food security in rural Bangladesh through our proposed customized, cost-effective aquaponic system that are resource efficient, low/zero carbon, and do not contribute to regional pollution. And it definitely will create employment to youth generation.

Currently: 0. We have piloted the concept, but not commercialize that yet. Hence, by definition we are not serving anyone.

In one year: 1,000 (appx.)

In five years: 5,000 (appx.)

Within the next year: 

1. Establishment of facility for piloting the aquaponic production.
2. Farmer group formation, train them and help them to implement the system.
3. Monitoring the system and provide support to the farmers.
4. Awareness/ campaign program to build-up public interest toward the service.
5. New opportunity creation for youth in rural area.

Within the next five years: 
1. Expand the service nationwide.
2. Upgrade the system as per new technology available.
3. Create and promote the roof-top aquaponic system in urban locality.
4. Spinning off as separate entity in form of social business venture (for-profit).

At present the contribution of agriculture to GDP is more than 15%, our five years’ goal is to increase the contribution of GDP to agriculture by 1% and make the contribution of agriculture to GDP more than 16%.

1. Shortage of understanding and skills in local community.

2. Potential malfunctioning of the system due to lack of proper maintenance.

3. Presence of local criminal groups stealing/ destroying the facility.

4. Absence of Govt policy toward aquaponics.

5. Consumer market system is not ready yet.

6. High-cost of accessories for a commercial aquaponic set-up.

Consider addressing each barrier individually, highlighting resources you have or will pursue and how you will use them.

1. Shortage of understanding and skills in local community: We will use training and workshops to train them through our expert on aquaponic on contractual basis.
2. Potential malfunctioning of the system due to lack of proper maintenance: regular maintenance system through proposed hot line will be there to regularly monitor and solve their problems. Our own call center with 2 agents (salaried) will be used so.
3. Presence of local criminal groups stealing/ destroying the facility: agreement with local govt. authority and local administration body will be in place to overcome this situation.
4. Absence of Govt policy toward aquaponic: round table session will be arranged for policy level discussion on aquaponic for Govt subsidy/ support for commercialization. 
5. Consumer market system is not ready yet: promotional campaign will be in place to aware the consumers about the product and benefit of consuming those for better health.
6. High-cost of accessories for a commercial aquaponic set-up: we will introduce our innovative accessories to replace available high-cost ones.

And we are looking for a grant or partner to overcome these barriers and believe that this funding will help us to start-up the business.

Full-time staff:         05

Part-time staff:        03

Contractor:            03 (Variable) 

Worker:                  Requirement basis.

Win incorporate works for the development of agriculture sector in Bangladesh. Since its founding, it has come with an aim to assist farmers to get better their way of farming, to make available strategic and information support in farming and reach the latest technologies of farming to the remote areas. Win is offering suitable alternatives to the standard farming possessions in response to our customers’ inquiries. We started in small arena and soon began expanding our products and services. Our reputation grew for quality work and sustainability. This led to the development of new service offerings. Recently we have developed our first project on aquaponic in small scale to verify the outcome. Our expert from Bangladesh Agricultural University in our pilot project who is pioneer in aquaponic in Bangladesh will execute all the knowledge and management activities among the farmers. Our experience with JICA on semi-organic farming system is helping us to plan and design effective production and marketing system which we will deploy in this project. Our CEO, Dr Kashfia has a vast experience of 13+ years in agriculture who have completed her PhD from Japan on fisheries. Head of Tech Remizius Remi has been serving in ICT in Agri sector for last 13+ years for designing and implementing innovative projects/ services especially for farmers. Win has been recognized by national and international organizations like The Manthan Award, National ICT Award 2010, mBillionth 2010, etc. for its innovative initiatives toward agriculture and ICT.

We are working with Fisheries faculty, Bangladesh Agricultural University, which is the pioneer of Aquaponic technology in Bangladesh. The faculty will be the chief trainer and consultant for establishing this technology and transferring the technology to farmers for sustainability. We have a private sector individual who can serve us with 1,000 farmers to whom we can offer our technology and share our knowledge. We also have collaboration with Bank Asia Ltd. to explore their Agent Banking system to introduce seamless mobile banking through for our farmers for transparent transactional activity. All of these partners will work under signed MoU for mutual benefit. 

Key resources:

Dr Kashfia Ahmed, CEO
Remizius Remi, Head of ICT4D 
Fahim Adnan Zaki, Project Manager
Firoz Alam, ICT executive
Abdur Rahman, Digitizer
Ismat Jahan Tuhin, Agronomist, 
Nahid Mondol, Product Manager
Abdul Kader, Content Manager
Fisheries faculty’s teacher, Bangladesh Agricultural University.

Key Activities:

1. System design.
2. System development, introduction to system.
3. Maintaining production, partnership and marketing linkage for the produce.
4. Training and guidance session.
5. Knowledge sharing among the youth entrepreneurs

Type of Intervention
It is a customized Aquaponics system solution service package which will support economic development and food security through sustainable agricultural which is resource efficient (to minimize land and fresh water wastage), low/zero carbon, and do not contribute to regional pollution.

Partners + Key Stakeholders
• Local individual with 1,000 farmers.
• Bank Asia (if necessary)

Channels:
• Focus group discussion, surveys, awareness program, campaign, etc.
• ICT: TV shows, newspaper articles, SMS/ OBD (voice SMS) campaign, FB promotion, etc.
• Online marketplace, community radio, etc.

Cost Structure
• System set-up: 45%
• HR: 30%
• Operational: 25%

Surplus
Marketing and promotional activities.

Revenue
Service sales: 30%, From maintenance: 10%

Segments
• Beneficiary: Farmers/ producers, Family/ friends of entrepreneurs/ farmers/ producers, SME Entrepreneurs/ youth individuals.
• Customer (consumer of produce): Production manager of Agro Industry, Chain-shops, Individual consumers.

Value Proposition
• Beneficiaries: low-cost unique production system and solution for better yield and profit.
• Customers: ensure pure organic and harmless food supply for better health on affordable price.

- Impact measures:
• % adoption. 
• % revenue rise.
• % consumer created.
• % of youth employment created.
• % heath condition improved.

We are planning to spend the grant amount to set-up a full-blown aquaponic system covering some innovative approach to suit in local market so that we can offer its success as trust-worthy example to follow. Later on, during the project tenure, we will introduce the system to target 1,000 farmers from our partner organization to spread it in commercial perspective. While it is expanding among them, we will offer our service to support their initiative for setting up their aquaponic infrastructure, give them training, follow them up with regular communication, and give them access to hotline call center to answer their various queries about this new technology. Against this service we will charge them monthly basis after project tenure. In addition, we will help them for marketing linkage upon mutual benefit. As a whole we are planning to offer this aquaponic system as service to customers all over Bangladesh upon business understanding and this project’s success will help us to establish our initiative as pioneer in Bangladesh. Community engagement is the key factor for its success, and we will be emphasizing on this throughout the project tenure and beyond.

Recently Bangladesh Govt. has given emphasis on hydroponic system to make it popular among the investors/ farmers due to its environmental impact and high cost-benefit ratio which can bring growth to GDP. On that ground we have also planned to approach to Govt with our project’s success stories and ready-to-serve facility to have incentive for future expansion.

Aquaponic itself is a type of technology which requires iteration and customization upon local environment and socioeconomic status. In some sense, a good set-up cost a bit higher which can’t be bared by small holder and medium farmers/ youth entrepreneurs. Being a SME, Win Incorporate could manage to run its pilot with local customization and had a limited success, but for making is full-proof and also developing various model to serve different types of customers we need a handful amount to execute the development, promote the service and build campaign/ awareness among the consumers and possible entrepreneurs. It is the seed money we need from Tiger Challenge to make it risk-free for us to design/ iterate/ develop and establish a facility which can serve both targeted farmers and youth entrepreneurs. Some fund will also be used to massively promote the service nationwide to make it sustainable in the future. For long-term sustainability we need the community engagement who can learn and deliver the knowledge to other interested individuals to spread the idea in bigger perspective to contribute to GDP growth. Eventually we need the fund as seed money to overcome all the barriers we have mentioned earlier.

For farmer enlisting for the project and its implementation we will engage our one of the individual partners to onboard 1,000 farmers under his supervision as contract grower. We will offer them technology and knowledge as our investment. We will also explore Bank Asia to use their Agent Banking system to introduce seamless banking through Mobile Financial Service (MFS) for our farmers. Fisheries faculty, Bangladesh Agricultural University, which is the pioneer of Aquaponic technology in Bangladesh will be our partner for establishing this technology in rural level. All of these partners will work under signed MoU for mutual benefit.