Establishing low impact, zero waste aquaculture for food security (ELIZA)

A humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resulted in 2.7 million displaced people suffering from malnutrition due to lack of availability and access to fish. Some 100,000s of the displaced people are now living in refugee settlements in neighbouring Uganda, putting pressure on natural resources and host communities. Aquaponics, which combines aquaculture with hydroponics in a recirculating system, is a suitable solution to increase household-level food security. However, careful design and management is required to make aquaponics systems productive. This is challenging for non-specialists. Therefore, any aquaponics-based solution must include a strong local support network comprised of a diversity of stakeholders. We setup a six-month aquaponics trial in Kampala, a city with many Congolese refugees. The trial was held at an Urban Farming Demonstration Centre, allowing access to refugees and members of the host community interested in fish production. As part of the work we also sought to engage local stakeholders and gain a better understanding of the needs and preferences of target groups. We found that the majority of target groups could access water and electricity supplies to facilitate aquaponics production. Questionnaires also revealed that the local fish trade was diverse in terms of the presentation of the final product (e.g. post-harvest processes, preservation methods) and the profiles of venders and consumers. Salad leaves, tomatoes, other greens and berries were all popular vegetable crops. From this we were able to identify the crops to be produced in the trial aquaponics system. In general, the aquaponics trial was a success, with a regular vegetable crop and reasonable fish growth over six months. However, several issues were identified that must be addressed before the trial is expanded to more challenging, remote refugee settings. These issues include power reliability, the quality of feed and seed fish, maintenance and overfeeding. Funding is actively being sought to advance the project by establishing further trials, including integrated feed production to mitigate for poor feed quality, which was an important source of problems during the trial.