WHAT IS BACKYARD AQUAPONICS?

How does it work?

Our community has readily adopted this approach to backyard food production. Backyard systems use minimal water and electricity. Aquaponics differ from hydroponics in that fish are in the system with the plants. 

Aquaponics systems optimize water and nutrient use efficiency by combining hydroponics (soil-less horticulture) and aquaculture (raising fish in tanks), which uses a fraction of the water and nutrients that traditional terrestrial systems do. The aquaponics systems were constructed as backyard models to provide families and communities with a consistent source of vegetables, fruit, and fish. Backyard systems use minimal water and electricity. Aquaponics differs from hydroponics in that fish are in the system with the plants.

Aquaponics is attractive to the community because it mimics the ahupua‘a system where fish and plants symbiotically grow in a sustainable and ecological system. Our community has readily adopted this approach to backyard food production. 

Traditional Practices

As a result of historical and structural factors, Native Hawaiian nutrition and eating habits fall short of the recommended guidelines. Native Hawaiian health promotion interventions that reintegrate traditional practices may be impactful in reducing risks of nutrition-related disease among Native Hawaiians.

In the last few decades, tremendous efforts have been made to revitalize traditional cultural practices to address self-governance, education, and . Many traditional research inequitable practices that include food production, including kalo (taro) farming, restoration of ancient loko i‘a (fish ponds), and exercising their kuleana of mālama ‘āina have been revitalized. There has been a call for place-based and culturally relevant strategies to promote Native Hawaiian health based on Hawaiian epistemology.

HĀLOA

When asked why they chose to start and continue aquaponics at home, community members often cite “fish and poi,” a reference to staple foods that are frequently grown in the systems, reminiscent of traditional food production systems of kalo (taro). Unfortunately, one of the challenges identified in aquaponics systems is that the kalo corm often does not form quickly or particularly well. We hypothesize that the primary reason is high nitrogen concentrations in the fish effluent promoting foliage growth at the expense of corm growth. To test this hypothesis, our team has designed a dual-tank system that excludes fish effluent from half of the kalo at mid-maturity. These plants will instead be provided with fresh, low-nitrogen water for the second growth stage to determine if this increases corm growth. Water quality is being evaluated weekly, and periodic comprehensive tests of water and tissue nutrient concentrations will be conducted to track differences between treatments.”