Aquaponics systems may soon be found in Gawad Kalinga villages in Negros Oriental after around 20 participants from different GK villages attended a two-day workshop at Foundation University.
The training, organized last week by the Department of Science & Technology in Negros Oriental, taught the villagers basic urban gardening and fabrication of simple barrel aquaponics.
Aquaponics is a fusion of aquaculture and hydroponics.
Fish are raised in a tank and the water from the tank is used to feed plants above the tank. This is a complete system because the animals and plants live off each other. Effluents from aquatic animals are used by plants as food. In the process, the plants purify water for the aquatic animals.
Jobert Kleine Koerkamp, acting dean of the FU College of Agriculture, together with Cedric Rosel and Jayro Mahinay served as resource persons.
“The concept of hydroponics and aquaponics was quite new to the GK participants,” Koerkamp said, who recalled the enthusiasm of the villagers in fabricating their own aquaponics system. (Sean Adrian Guardiano)
