Aquaponics: Farming for the future

Did you know farmers can plant crops without arable land?

Right now, farmers are looking to plant their crops on water plantations, a practice called “aquaponics”.

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture – the raising of aquatic animals – and hydroponics – growing crops on water.

Aquaponics allows for the cultivation of herbs, flowers, plants and veggies.

A farmer takes the crop seed and places them in clay poked with holes. When the plant grows roots, which takes about two weeks, the farmer takes the plant out of the clay and places it right in the water.

The water contains bacteria that become a source of rich nutrition for the crop after the process of synthesis. Once the plants absorb the bacteria, the water becomes fresh again – and is recycled for the next crop.

You can practice aquaponics on a small scale: all you need is to have freshwater, freshwater fish, a tube to recycle the water and a curved plate to prevent the plant from dipping too far into the water.

Courses in aquaponics are currently being taught at Royal University of Agriculture.

DIY: Jazz up your junk

If you’ve bought and used a product for a while now, it’s not necessarily junk. Instead of buying something new, think about some do-it-yourself decorating.

“You can choose whether or not you want to your stuff to be the same as everyone else’s or have something unique with DIY decorating,” said Rotha Rosa, a year-nine student at Jba Om Pov High School.

The decorating process is simple. Take whatever small thing you can think of, jazz it up with some creative decoration, and add it to whatever you want.

Adding colours is a simple DIY to make something look new and fresh.

“Give it a try,” Rosa said. “Even though some people out there might think DIY is a bit cheap, it’s actually economic and environmentally-conscious.”

Rosa enjoys redecorating her hair bows, clothes, and even furniture – which may be old, but in good enough condition to be reused.

“DIY decorations aren’t weird or strange,” she said. “It adds more value and a creative flair to the things you already have.”