What if you could grow 9-12 times more than with traditional agriculture with 10% of the water consumption? You can. With aquaponics.
Fish farming sludge treatment specialist Blue Ocean Technology has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Fusion Farms, which operates a hurricane-resistant vertical indoor aquaponics farm in Puerto Rico.
Fusion grows tilapia in tanks in the building in the country’s fifth-largest city, Mayagüez, and uses the nutrient-rich water from the tanks to grow basil, lettuce, mint, coriander and microgreens. The plants take up some of the nutrients, helping the recirculation process.
The company, led by president and chief scientific officer Dr Anabelle Morales Droz, supplies 42 restaurants, three distributors, and two grocery chains and has big plans. It is raising money to increase production capacity and expand operations in Puerto Rico, across the Caribbean and into the United States and elsewhere.
More sustainable
Hans Runshaug, chief executive of Norway-based Blue Ocean Technology, said: “Dr Anabelle Morales Droz and the team at Fusion Farms can grow 9-12 times the annual yield of traditional farming with only 10% of the water usage, and they are already using the highly valuable nutrient water from the aquaponics system as a completely organic wet fertiliser.
“What we give them the ability to do is remove the water from that valuable resource and create an entirely new product category.
