Electrically powered fish pond established in Ashanti

Daniel K. Kenu Apr - 08 - 2016 , 14:43

The Crop Research Institute with support from the Brazilian Agriculture Research Cooperation (EMBRAPA) has established an electrically powered fish pond built with local materials to enhance fish farming in the country.

Even though the concept was first developed by scientists from EMBRAPA, it has been enhanced and localised by an eight-member group of scientists from the CSIR-Crop Research Institute, Fumesua near Kumasi led by Mr Shadrack Kwadwo Amponsah.

Mr Amponsah, who had earlier developed a cassava harvester, is leading in the training of about 50 local farmers on the construction and maintenance of the new system.

Fish pond

The pond is constructed with bamboo and tarpaulin on a 4x3m land size.

The pond forms part of a holistic new system of farming dubbed ‘Aquaponics-based Food Systems (AFS)’ project where the output of one system becomes the input of another.

It is an integrated farming practised on a small land size where nothing goes waste as crops become the feed for the fish and the waste water from the pond plus animal droppings serve as manure for the growth of the crops.

Objective

Mr Amponsah told the Daily Graphic that the objective was to ensure an all-year-round food production for enhanced nutrition to smallholder farmers.

According to him, the integrated approach to agriculture was the way forward to achieving sustainable food security in Ghana.