Globally, the agricultural sector continues to face multifaceted problems. There have been growing concerns about climate change and its effect on agriculture. These effects, which manifest as flooding, drought, erratic rain patterns, etcetera, cripple food availability. The unprecedented pandemic, accompanied by a lockdown, aggravated the existing food insecurity by putting a halt to food production and its distribution globally. So apart from the issues of food insecurity caused by climate change, people could not purchase what they required due to immobility. This sudden reality spurred a renewed interest in the culture of growing things, and now, more than ever, consumers are concerned about where their food comes from and its impact on the environment. Consequently, there is a shift to a more sustainable technique of farming.

In Ghana, Lawrencia Kwansah, an aquaculturist, recently nominated for the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize is championing one of such techniques with her Aquaponics Hub. Kwansah established the hub to give families options for urban farming during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aquaponics is a modern-day agricultural innovation where fish and plants live in symbiosis. In other words, aquaponics is a system of aquaculture whereby the waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic creatures supplies the nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purify the water.

“With my knowledge and background in aquaculture, I understand that when you raise fish in tanks, there are issues of waste because you would have to discard the water and replace it with new water. This water is very nutrient-rich because it contains fish feed and their excrete. We have to find ways of using these nutrients for other beneficial things, and this is where aquaponics comes in. We thought about how to make it work in Ghana since people are becoming more concerned about the food they eat, where it is coming from, and what it contains,” Kwansah stated.

Lawrencia Kwansah

Crops grown this way do not require soil, and the system is particularly useful in urban settings where arable land is limited. It is still an emerging form of farming on the continent, and according to Kwansah, one of the reasons for that is people do not know about it. “There is no expertise for running such a system, and people do not know where to get materials to set up. Even people that have heard of it do not know how to set up their systems,” Kwansah explained.

This innovative farming system is crucial to addressing food insecurity and undernourishment on the continent. As of 2020, more than one-third of the African population was undernourished, and 282 million people were experiencing hunger, more than double the proportion of any other region in the world. Traditional planting alone will not suffice to address this deficiency and feed the continent’s burgeoning population, which will account for a quarter of the world’s population by 2050. Because of the climate-smart nature of aquaponics systems, they are not affected by harmattan or irregular rainfall patterns. Furthermore, they do not require pesticides, resulting in organic and nutritionally beneficial agro produce.

Unlike traditional agriculture, aquaponics uses one-sixth of the water to grow eight times more food per acre throughout the year in any climate. Because of the continuous nutrient that the plants have access to, they grow faster than conventional crops. Kwansah explained that leafy greens are much easier to grow with the system because they do not require plenty of nutrients. “Your lettuce can grow to maturity within a month of planting them in your system. If you want to grow fruity vegetables like tomatoes, you need larger systems. And when it comes to efficiency, you could have two growing cycles in maybe six months and then harvest and restock,” she said.

Aquaponics kit

Since it is a relatively modern way of farming, training on best practices is essential. Aquaponics Hub provides farmers with theoretical and practical training sessions, online and offline.

Aquaponics systems require a consistent source of electricity to run efficiently. Sadly, many African regions have no access to energy, corresponding to an electricity access rate of just over 40 per cent, the lowest in the world. Alternative energy sources, such as solar or hydropower, can be used to solve energy problems in operating aquaponics. Kwansah’s Aquaponics Hub kit is solar-powered and can be used in off-grid areas or where power outages are prevalent. 

The aquaponics kit is available in a variety of sizes to accommodate the user’s space and needs, and it requires less technical expertise to operate. The hub is also outfitted with smart sensor monitors to track plant growth, fish health, nutrient levels, pH, etcetera. Other devices can monitor the aforelisted qualities, but the sensor monitor is a cost-effective alternative. “We have other devices that check for these things, but they are often expensive. Many people operate aquaponics on a small scale; they don’t have the money to buy expensive gizmos for the system. So we input a sensor monitor to their unit to help them check the pH level, oxygen level, and ammonia level. They don’t have to sit and guess. It gives them the necessary information to let the aquaponics system run effectively,” Kwansah stated. 

Aquaponics Hub also has an app with instructional materials for managing the systems. In addition, the app has a digital marketplace where owners can buy and sell vegetables, fish, fish food, seeds, and kit components. “There are restaurants that sell tilapia, and there are probably tilapia farmers around Accra who do not know about these restaurants. We connect such farmers to the market. Our mobile app puts these products online so the restaurants can locate farmers and do business with them,” Kwansah explained.

Kwansah and her team are gaining traction and revolutionising Ghana’s agricultural sector by educating people about aquaponics. The team has grown beyond its initial number of sixty trainees. They also started with twenty kits but are looking to build 300 units by the end of the year. A market study conducted by Kwansah and her team showed that 90 per cent of the vegetable farmers they spoke to were willing to convert to an aquaponics system. 

The hub’s commendable growth, however, is not without challenges. Finding raw materials to set up aquaponics units is challenging because it is not a well-established industry in the country. Language barrier is also a challenge for the team during training. Initially, it was less daunting in Accra – the capital city, where many people could speak English. But once they moved to rural areas where very few people had formal education, it became difficult to communicate with them in a language other than their local language. Also, since their activities started during the pandemic, training was virtual. Many people do not have access to internet connections and smartphones to join these training in rural areas. And although they have received grants that have helped their progress, funding remains a challenge for extensive scaling into other markets. 

Despite these challenges, Kwansah believes aquaponics has a bright prospect on the continent. “Aquaponics doesn’t use so much water. You can grow a lot of vegetables with limited resources. I think it is one of the sustainable solutions to adopt in fighting the climate change crises, food insecurity, and provision of employment in Africa. Aquaponics is a great way to maximize space and empower urban households. It is often dismissed as either too expensive or too technical a farming method, but we don’t believe it is either, and our goal is to use it to improve food security throughout Africa,” she said.

In terms of expansion, Aquaponics Hub is looking to work with NGOs and the government to train young people and make them grow their food either for commercial purposes or to supplement the food they consume at home. “Right now, we are only in Ghana, but we are looking forward to expanding to neighbouring countries like Togo, Benin, and Cote d’Ivoire,” she said.

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