Practical Action’s Practical Answers team in Bangladesh is piloting an innovative concept of raising fish in cages and growing vegetables at the same time.
This farming technique uses water from aquaculture to grow crops or vegetables while it purifies water for fish in the cage or pond. In return, the waste produced by farmed fish supplies nutrients for the vegetables.
This draws on many years of experience that Practical Action has had in promoting “cage aquaculture”, the farming of fish in cages that has proved a good solution to poor land security in flood-prone areas.
In June 2016 Practgical Action signed a contract agreement with Blue Gold Programme of the Netherlands Government for piloting this “Cage Aqua-geoponics System in Polder”.
Hasin Jahan, Country Director of Practical Action Bangladesh
Hasin Jahan, Country Director of Practical Action, Bangladesh calls this aquageophonic agriculture the next bloom of climate adaptive farming.
She informed that Practical Action is introducing a new way of growing vegetables over floating fish-cases in canals and ponds of coastal polders. This climate adaptive technique will help landless people in the coast to grow vegetables and culture fish simultaneously to address the nutritional deficiency. An investment of 13,000 Tk will produce more than 180 kg of fish and 25 Kg vegetables within 8-9 months. This project has been taken in Shatkhira district with support from the Dutch funded Blue Gold Programnme.
Practical Action will be working with Bangladesh Agricultural University and Shushilan, a local organisation based in Satkhira district.
