Eric Maundu, owner and founder of “Kijani Grows” (“Kijani” is Swahili for green), isn’t a farmer, he’s an engineer with a computer science degree from USA. Maundu himself ran from agriculture in his native Kenya- where he saw it as a struggle for land, water and resources. In the USA he felt the negative impacts of urbanization, industrial waste and traffic pollution on contamination of soils and degradation in land-water resources. In industrial/urban areas and cities, freeways, roads, light rail and parking lots so there’s not much arable land and the soil is contaminated. With these threats in mind he realized he could farm without soil, with little water via aquaponics and with possibilities to use “self-cleaning” and recycling as well as that he could apply his robotics background to farming. An amazing combination of: physics; chemistry; biology; ecology; and computer science in one system.
No soil, instead Maundu is growing plants using fish and circulating water. It’s called aquaponics- a gardening system that combines hydroponics (water-based planting) and aquaculture (fish farming). It’s been hailed as the future of farming: it uses less water (up to 90% less than traditional gardening), doesn’t attract soil-based bugs and produces two types of produce (both plants and fish)., i.e. a full meal!
Maundu- by being trained in industrial robotics- has taken the agricultural craft one step further and made his “aquaponics” smart. Using sensors (to detect water level, pH and temperature), microprocessors, relay cards, clouds and social media networks. Maundu has programmed his gardens to tweet when there’s a problem, e.g. not enough water or when there’s news, e.g. an over-abundance of food to share. With these smart solutions the same information can be shared with farmers in Iceland and China.” Maundu believes that by putting gardens online, especially in places where solar-powered gardens are totally off the grid), is the only way to make sure that farming remains viable to the next generation of urban youth.
Any new technology, as any new medicine, has to undergo market evaluation, to assess the potential of large-scale real application in terms of advantages and disadvantages for the users in different climatic zones, with different background, economic, education and technological conditions. Affordability, accessibility and sustainability are essential factors for large-scale and long-term investment and implementation. Aquaponics is a gardening system that combines hydroponics (water-based planting) and aquaculture (fish farming). It is a small-scale technology with closed or semi-opened systems that requires initial capital investments, e.g. infrastructure, education, training and follow-up activities. It is not a matter of “plug and play”, “turnkey and use” or “one-size-fits-all” as some minimum manual work has to be done for optimum running of the systems. In the developing countries these issues have to be resolved and it is not an over-night effort. However, once this is done one can enjoy many advantages, e.g. less water (up to 90% less than traditional gardening), doesn’t attract soil-based bugs and supports two types of products (plants and fish), i.e. production of full meals! For household applications, this will promote conservation of natural resources, recycling of waste, less production of pollution and fostering better sanitation.
What regards automation of aquaponics by industrial robotics and smart ICT-solutions this would require access not only to qualified engineers but also R & D infra-structures. Using sensors (to detect water level, pH and temperature), microprocessors, relay cards, clouds and social media networks to automatically control the systems mean that infra-structures of heaters, water/humidity-, pH- and Eh- (i.e. the red/ox. conditions) regulators have to be available with proper soft-water so as the wished stability can be achieved. Further the software and the technical infrastructures have to be tested and calibrated. However, hydroponic (water-based planting) automated applications have achieved real market applications where large “green-house” facilities are aleady in operation. This gives indications that automated aquaponics is possible to achieve with real market applications.