
Originally Posted by
rumar18
nice! and i commend you for the effort of helping people to earn, saving the environment and improving our economy if this will prosper. how much is needed for the materials of a small "farm"?
Hi Rumar,
"Small Farm" is difficult to evaluate. In aquaponics, a 1 Sq. meter fish-tank Aquaponics system can translate to 20 or 30 sq meter traditional fish pond. Depending on your know-how and capability you can increase the fish density to much more. A 1 Sq. meter, Aquaponics System can provide you a start up of vegetables equivalent to a land area of 5 then increase to 10 to 20 sq. meters. As your system develops your "ferilized production area" coverage can increase. With Aquaponics you can be creative, hence, space should not be an issue. You can go vertical farming - sky is the limit(including your cash). In other words, your 1 sq. meter can become 3 sq. meters if you have 3 layers of fish tank. Your vegetable grow bed can also be designed for vertical production, so you can already start your farm on a 10 sq meter plot as long as you can provide the infrastructure.
Traditional farming cannot be compared with aquaponics as each have different conditions and parameters. There is no way to evaluate and compare "apple to apple" considering that you do not have to travel hours to go to the farm, spend gasoline/fuel and pollute the environment. To answer your "small farm" - For backyard hobbyist a 10 sq. meter, 10,000.00 php (using recycled, creative construction would be about it) 50,000 php 20 to 30 sq. meter you can be sustainable and renewable.
One most important thing that people fail to appreciate is the invaluable quality, nutritious-organic, toxic free, chemical free, healthy, clean and environmentally friendly way of producing food for the family. In my case health issue, was my main drive when I started all these activity to acheive nutritious farm produce and not so much for the monetary returns. On the other hand-organic products are now very expensive. Most of those who attend my presentations have that purpose in mind-health food, as the priorty. Foreigners are very conscious of the "organic-fish" aspect as well as they do not trust what is being sold. I do know how it is to suffer all those allergies.
My apologies for the long winded explanation, but I would take this opportunity to a common query and becomes part of my FAQ.