The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) debuted a new aquaponics facility on 7 December in Ethiopia that could change how fish and land-based crops are farmed in the future there.
The facility, unveiled in Addis Ababa on the campus of the College of Natural Sciences, was a proof-of-concept project, entitled, "Support to sustainable aquaculture development through the smart use of water: promotion and technology transfer of small scale aquaponics in Ethiopia."
The concept, part of the FAO's SmartFish program and aquaponics initiative, involves replacing typical filtration systems for land-based aquaculture with sending water from the tanks into soil where crops are growing. The plants then take in the nutrients in the water, and the water passes out on the other side, clean and filtered, to return to the tank.
If adopted, the concept could be put to work to help grow food, both plant and water-based, in poor or developing countries.
