Hydroponic Fodder System

In Iraq, availability and price of fodder are highly volatile and create a vulnerability for small-scale farmers. With the innovative hydroponic fodder system, based on a technology of soil-less plant propagation, farmers will be able to cultivate and produce low-cost green fodder in a one-week period all year round. Our solution requires less water compared with traditional farming and is entirely powered by solar panels, making it both sustainable and a great contestant in the fight against climate change. It will allow them to increase their profits, maintain stable production of food products, improve the health of their animals, and increase food security. In the long term, the project will strengthen resilience to drought and market volatility, benefiting both farmers and the local community.

Years of wars as well as recurrent droughts and overgrazing have made small-scale farmers (SSF) in Iraq vulnerable to fodder price volatility. As animal feed constitutes about 70 per cent of the total cost for livestock production, volatile prices and fluctuating availability are risking livestock farms' profitability and sustainability. 

SSF now have to use different negative coping mechanisms to handle the challenge of providing feed for their animals, with many selling parts of their livestock assets (land, animals, etc) to buy feed. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for them to later re-establish their farming activities and they enter a vicious circle which can result in having to take on casual labor and ultimately becoming dependent on food aid. In this context, female-headed households are particularly vulnerable due to limited alternatives available to them.  

Livestock has for long been a key part of the Iraqi economy and substantially contributes to food security and nutrition of the rural population. With many livestock farmers now struggling to access affordable fodder, this is directly affecting their ability to sustain their own living conditions, as well as to support food security for the rest of the population of their community.

In an innovative effort to mitigate the adverse impacts of this situation on the livelihoods of SSF in Iraq, we have developed a system that utilizes hydroponic technology (soil-less plant propagation) to produce fodder. This provides farmers with a low-cost, high quality, sustainable source of fodder which is available all year-round.

Each hydroponic fodder system is housed in a small mobile unit (5m x 1.5m x 2m height) and consists of a framework of shelves on which trays are stacked. Barley seeds are soaked in water for four hours and then spread evenly over each tray. Water is supplied four times every day through spray irrigation. The seeds usually sprout within 24 hours and produce a 15 – 20 cm high grass mat within 7 days. Every 2 kilos of barley seeds yield 8 kilos of fresh green fodder. The entire grass mat can be directly fed to cows, leaving no waste products.

Every hydroponic unit produces approximately 210 kg of fresh green barley per day at full capacity. It costs around $8,500 and has access to water through a water tank mounted on the roof as well as stable access to electricity through a solar panel system.

The ones primarily affected by the problem of accessing fodder are small-scale farmers (SSF), especially in desert climates and drought-prone areas.The food security of the rural population is affected as well, as the lack of fodder decreases livestock production resulting in less food available for the rural population.

The idea of applying hydroponic technology to produce fodder was born in a small-scale livestock farm run by Mercy Hands for Humanitarian Hands (the sister organization of Mercy Hands Europe) in Salamiya, Iraq. By running the farm, staff of Mercy Hands for Humanitarian Aid experienced first-hand the issue of accessing fodder and how this impacts the profitability of the farm. Naturally, as all SSF in the region face the same external factors and climate, the need for a solution that improves the availability of fodder extends to all SSF.  

We verified the urgent need for innovative solutions addressing the challenge in accessing fodder in Iraq through needs assessments as well as in discussions in humanitarian coordination working groups and clusters. The issue of volatile price and availability of fodder in Iraq has been mentioned in multiple reports by the FAO and UNDP.

As the first ones to produce a hydroponic system like this in Iraq, our project has gained significant attention by both farmers and experts in agriculture who are now awaiting the results from the trial operation of the prototype. Many have already expressed an interest in purchasing our product once it is ready for the market. 

On a global scale, the need for innovative approaches to fodder production is becoming more apparent with every drought. In many countries, buying fodder is simply too expensive and so farmers grow crops to feed both themselves and their valuable animals. As droughts are becoming more frequent and increasingly severe, farmers find themselves unable to grow crops in a traditional way, making it difficult to provide enough fodder for their animals. In these areas, there is a dire need for an innovative solution to address the issue of growing and providing fodder. The hydroponic fodder system is needed not only in Iraq, but in all drought-prone areas of the world.

As the agricultural sector (and livestock farming in particular) is one of the most important producers of carbon emissions, innovative agricultural practices should not only mitigate climate change’s adverse effects, but also reduce the impact of agriculture as a carbon-intensive sector on the environment. In that regard, the project addresses both climate adaptation and climate resilience for strong ecosystems. First, it helps farmers deal with increasingly severe weather conditions such as droughts and desertification by reducing their need for water. Second, it puts less pressure on water resources in desert areas and addresses water scarcity issues for renewed balanced ecosystems.

When the idea of hydroponic fodder system was born, we conducted a trial experiment to test the potential of applying hydroponic technology to produce fodder. The test generated good results for all key indicators, including production time, quality of fodder, and costs saved. After that, the work to develop a prototype hydroponic fodder system unit quickly started. Since no one has constructed a similar system in Iraq before us, we adopted a trial-and-error approach in order to find the best and most efficient way to produce a hydroponic fodder system unit. While this means that it took us some extra time to produce the first prototype, we now have a clear understanding of the production process and will be able to produce a new unit in just two weeks. Our goal now is to launch the pilot phase of our project.

The hydroponic fodder system is an entirely new product in its context. The primary innovative aspect of the product is the hydroponic technology (soil-less plant propagation), which provides farmers with a low-cost, high quality, and sustainable source of fodder available all year-round. Hydroponic propagation has not been utilized to any great extent among SSF in Iraq, making it an innovative product. The hydroponic fodder system has been creatively designed to both suit the context and make use of the climate in the area. For instance, each unit is powered by solar power panels fitted on the roof. The units are also mobile, making them possible to move if any external factors, such as flooding or an escalating conflict, requires so.

Other approaches to securing fodder via the hydroponic technology currently do not exist in the market. They either include producing fodder using traditional propagating technologies or purchasing fodder from the local market. The hydroponic fodder system offers benefits for either customer as it both produces fodder substantially quicker compared with traditional farming and at a lower cost compared with purchasing it from the local market.

With farmers all around the world suffering substantial economic losses due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, challenges have been further exacerbated by droughts. The hydroponic fodder system provides a great opportunity to minimize these challenges and to improve the lives of small-scale farmers in the long term.

With the funds to produce two new hydroponic units, we can have a positive impact on the lives of more than 3,000 people in the short and medium term. The two hydroponic units will be distributed to two farmers who will receive training on how to operate them. Assuming that each farmer supports a family of 6, a total of 14 people will be directly impacted by secured livelihoods and a more stable income. Each unit can support a farmer to produce enough livestock products to feed up to 1,538 people from the local rural community. In the long term, the larger surrounding area can benefit from the hydroponic fodder systems as they build resilience to shocks and contribute to stabilizing prices in general.

Given the fact that the hydroponic fodder system is especially beneficial to farmers located in drought-prone areas or regions with desert climates, and that our product is produced in Iraq and that its weight will make shipping expensive, our serviceable available market are all SSF in the Middle East and North Africa. This amounts to approximately 16 million.

Assuming that half of these SSF will have no or very few animals, they would not be the direct target group for the hydroponic fodder system as it produces enough fodder for almost 50 calves every day. Adding competition and the extent of market adoption, the serviceable obtainable market can be estimated to 400 000 SSF.

To measure progress during the pilot phase, we will conduct a baseline evaluation before the units are distributed to the farmers, continuous monitoring while they are operating the units, and an end line assessment to understand the impact of using the hydroponic fodder system units on the farmers and their families as well as the local rural communities. Key indicators include how much money the farmer could save using the units, if they could sell any excess fodder in the local market, any change in health in the animals, and whether access to livestock food products has increased in the local market (increasing food security). The project manager will lead the team and all aspects of the project, the engineer will be responsible for all technical aspects including the production of the new hydroponic fodder system units, and the lawyer will work to file a patent application.

There are currently four people working on the solution team, all of them full-time staff.

With over 15 years of experience of working in the field with farmers in Iraq, we have great knowledge and a broad understanding of the local context, which sets us apart from many of our competitors. We have had the opportunity to build long and trustful relation with major institutions, donors, and UN agencies in Iraq, and we can provide their reference upon request. Additionally, we have strong connections with key stakeholders all over the world and are ready to scale up the production and distribution of hydroponic units beyond Iraq.

We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable leadership team. We currently are four people working on this project, with a strict gender parity. Moreover, our organization is led by a woman and comprises a team of mostly female staff.

We also seek to empower local actors; the technology that we are developing is a local solution to local problems, and the engineer that developed the solution on the ground is the team leader of this project.

Finally, we will ensure that during all phases of our project, from testing to scaling-up, all activities will be gender-sensitive and will mitigate risks of sexual harassment or gender-based violence.

By applying to Sovle, we envision opportunities for exposure, but also to validate and fine-tune our idea and business model. We already have the technical part finished and tested in-house and are now looking to better understand how we can efficiently break into the market of small-scale farmers in developing countries.

For the next year, we want to scale up the impact of our product in Iraq. Since we are a non-profit NGO, we don't have an extensive business experience and we think that we could greatly benefit from support to develop our business model.

We don't have any specific organization in mind.