A pilot ‘Aquaponics facility’ developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary University (GADVASU), Ludhiana was inaugurated virtually by the Union Minister of State for Education, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India Sanjay Dhotre.

 

"Aquaponics and related alternative farming techniques are highly required to improve the status of farmers. This technique will help the farmer in increasing the productivity and also augment his income, said Sanjay Dhotre. 

 

Dhotre suggested that many more such projects should be taken up to rapidly percolate such technologies in the masses.

 

The state-of-the-art facility which is the first of its kind in the region, is equipped with advanced sensors for monitoring and automated controls. It has been developed with the funding support from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt. of India. 

 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. PK Khosla Executive director, C-DAC Mohali informed that the facility is nearly 100% organic, needs much less land for a given yield of crop, consumes 90% less water, the fish and plants so grown are more nutritious.

 

Dr. Hemant Darbari, Director General, C-DAC informed about various activities of C-DAC in the area of agriculture and appreciated the efforts by C-DAC, Mohali. 

 

Smt. Jyoti Arora, Special Secretary and Finance Adviser to the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Govt. of India, talked about the importance of agriculture in Indian economy and the need for the technology to further work for uplifting the agriculture. 

 

Smt Jyoti Arora, Special Secretary and Financial advisor said that the aspirational rural youth will be drawn in mainstream with help of this technology and agri-economy will get a boost.

 

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice chancellor of the GADVASU University mentioned that demand for fishes and such crops is increasing rapidly in urban areas and this type of systems should be very helpful in increasing the farmer’s income, especially in non-coastal areas.

 

Aquaponics is an emerging technique in which both fishes as well as the plants are grown in an integrated manner. The fish waste provides fertilizer for growing plants. The plants absorb nutrients and filter the water. This filtered water is used to replenish the fish tank. This is an environment friendly technique.