Biju's Aquaponics Farm

Ever since I published the video on the fish tank around my house, many people have asked me about aquaponics, and how fish can be grown using that technique. I don’t have a clear answer to give. But Mr Biju is an expert in this field. I’ve known him for four years. He was the person who supplied me with materials for setting up an aquaponics unit. I had seen this place then. Let me give you a short introduction about him. This is a twenty-cent plot. But he has set up so many things here that you may wonder whether all that is possible within such an area. Obviously, the usefulness of a space depends on how well you utilize it. He has used up every inch of this plot, and here you will find many models that you can adopt. Let us start with aquaponics.

This is a basic aquaponics unit. This area was full of ivy gourd. When I called him, he told me to come later because he had just removed the ivy gourd vines, and trained ridge gourd (luffa) and bottle gourd vines on the trellis. Besides, he is also growing grapes. You will see ivy gourd, mint, tomato and several other plants here, all growing in an aquaponics tray. There is a tank close to it which serves as a kind of pond. A pump is fitted to it, and the water gets automatically purified. Let us learn the rest from him directly.

How many fish can be grown in this?
We can grow up to 50 fish in 1000 litres of water. As you increase their number, the density will increase and there will be greater chances of death rate going up. But after you have gathered some experience, you can increase the number. Here I have 70 large ones.

How long does it take for them to mature?
In four months, they are good for consumption. Each will weigh up to 300-350 gm by then.
If we get 50 fish in four months, we can average 150 a year.
And if we grow the small fry in a small tank as a nursery, we can harvest up to 200 a year.
So, if we have two tanks, we can consume one fish every day.
All the vegetables and fish that a family requires can be harvested from here itself. By the time we have one harvest of fish, we can manage two harvests of vegetables.

Why do you have two layers of net here?
If we use aquaponics, the growth rate of snake gourd and ridge gourd is nearly two times faster than what they  attain in traditional farming.
That’s true.
If you grow tomato in the soil, you have to check the pH value, spread manure, and so on. Here, that’s not required. If the fish tank is all set, we will get all the vegetables we need. After they grow and put out more branches, they will spread over the lower net as well. So we can have vegetables on both layers. Here, the bottle gourd has occupied the upper layer. If we give the tomato plants a little support, it will use the lower layer.

Does the tomato plant grow that tall?
I have a variety of tomato plant that has grown to four metres. Bangalore tomato.
Mint is growing in profusion here.
Yes. We do not use all of it at home. Occasionally, I give them to vegetable shops at Rs 50 per kilo. If we work earnestly, we can make it a source of income.
Getting mint that has not been sprinkled with pesticides is a great thing.
We use mint in several ways. We add it in the lemonade we make at home, and serve it to every visitor.
True, we too were served lemonade with mint flavour. The taste is very special.
It has plenty of anti-oxidants too.

I have a complaint against you. Wherever I go, I advise people not to cement their ground. You have paved nearly half of the front yard with cement tiles. Water will not seep into the soil. What is your reason for doing this?
All the rain water that falls on the cemented surface in my plot, either here or on the terrace, will flow towards this well. That is the way I have planned it. There is a channel here and you will see a pipe there.

Will not rain water flow out into the road?
As the road is at a higher level, most people fear that we will have a problem of waterlogging. But that does not happen. All the water is stored here.
That is a feat of engineering expertise!
There is another pipe that brings rain water from the roof to the well.
On the sides you have a two-inch space for the water to seep down.
Yes. All the water will flow to this portion of the plot. If I were to fix a rain water reservoir with a capacity of two lakh litres, I will be able to store all the rain water that falls in this plot in it.

True, the ground has been tiled but not a single drop of water is going waste. Wonderful! This is indeed a good model. That gooseberry tree has grown so big and is very close to the house. Don’t you fear that it will fall over the building?
Not at all! The branches have been properly pruned.

Does it pose a threat to the foundation?
No.

My main question to you is: Will you set up this system for others?
Yes. I have seven-and-a-half years of experience. And I have undergone MPEDA [Marine Products Export Development Authority] training too.
In fact, I got your contact number from MPEDA.
The training was conducted before Shaji sir of MPEDA left for Vishakhapattanam.

I have a cousin named Ramachandran at CMFRI [Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute]. It was he who put me in touch with you.
I got fed up with planting in the soil because the crop was very meagre. My family also felt the same. That was when I heard about aquaponics. Of course, even with aquaponics, I faced challenges when I used road metal. The siphon would not work . . . and there were other problems. But after the first phase was over, I got the hang of it. The first couple of harvests were not very extraordinary. That was because I did not understand the scientific side. But with the third harvest, I got 15 kg of bitter gourd. That was a vegetable which I had grown in the soil, and failed to cultivate the most number of times. With this bumper crop everyone at home was happy. Thereafter, I had success with all the other vegetables. For that reason, I did not consider using fish for consumption. I got very little profit from selling it. But I don’t have to spend on procuring manure. I get it from the water here. Very rarely, I use micro-nutrients, on the leaves, to trigger flowering or fruiting.

What are you using in place of road metal?
I’ve shifted to clay balls.
You arranged road metal for me.
Cleaning the road metal is a hectic task. After the harvest of each crop, all the roots clog up the entire surface. So it has to be cleaned. This is my third crop after shifting to clay balls. And this time, I’ve not cleaned them. It’s an experiment. And there’s good growth.

What is the cost of clay balls?
Rs 4,000 to 4,500 per tray.

Is it available everywhere?
I got this from Gujarat. When I watched videos, I observed that clay balls are preferred in foreign countries.

Do you make it available here?
Yes. I place orders for clay balls, and set them according to the requirements of interested parties.

How much did this cost you?
I got a 1,000-litre unit of good quality for Rs 30,000. This is a grow bed of 300 litres. It has a bell siphon, and an air pump to spare. All the spare parts are also provided.

Will there be a problem if there is a power failure?
No. It’ll work even if there is an interruption for 3-4 hours. That is because we have created a full ecosystem here. It is ammonia-free right now. But if it increases, the fish will be affected.

What is the capacity of the pump?
A 25-watt pump should be enough.

Won’t it run on solar energy?
Yes, it will. But there is no need for such a heavy investment. It will work on air pump too. If there is dissolved oxygen in the water, the fish will survive. Do you notice the fish coming up when we put the feed?
Do you have power supply problems here?
No. But I have installed an inverter for home use and for this unit too. A CFL will run on 25 watts. Just as a 100-watt bulb will remain lighted for an entire day, only one-fourth of the entire power is used up for this.

Do you have only one variety of fish in this tank?
In this pond, I have tilapia, knife fish, gourami, grouper, all mixed together. They don’t create any problems.
The Assam knife fish? Won’t it attack the rest?
Generally there are no problems. All of them are of the same age. But if you don’t give them feed, then they begin to attack.
Do you give them any special food?
No. I give them pellets. Leaves of Colocasia too.
I have that plant in my garden. If I throw the leaves in the pond, the fish eat every part of it, leaving only the ribs.

The only problem is that the pump sometimes sucks up the plant waste. So, as far as possible, we have to tie it to one side so that they do not drift to the pump. Leaves of yardlong beans and drumstick tree can also be given as feed.
But won’t those leaves float on the surface?
They do. But sometimes the fish may drag them down. Or they may rot and descend.
In that case, isn’t it enough if we fix a net at the bottom of the pump?
Even then we will have to clean it. So the best way is to tie the leaves to the net. The fish will not be able to drag the leaves down. After they have fed themselves, we can remove the remains of the leaves.
In my pond, the ribs remain afloat. After the fish have had their fill, I remove the ribs.
Some people may not be able to pay so much attention. I leave in the morning and come back home only at night. I put the leaves in the pond in the morning. By evening the whole of it would have been pulled down.

Where is this banana plant from?
An aunt of mine gifted it to me. I took a liking for it for some reason. The bananas look like fingers. It is called Vaishakhi, I think.
I don’t know the name. Once when I went to Kattappana, somewhere between Nedumkandam and Rajakkad, I happened to eat this banana at a roadside shop. I found it very tasty. And the fruit can be plucked at the merest touch.
Yes, like robesta.
I asked the man for the seeds. And I got them in two months’ time. The most amusing thing is that this plant can be grown even in a bucket. People grow plantains on the terrace. How many fruits will you find in a bunch?
Around 50 or 60.
If we have 10 of these plants in buckets, they can be grown on the terrace too.
This is banana, created with the help of tissue culture. The bunch will be small.

Even coconut trees are grown in terraces. So cultivating banana is child’s play. Many people actually do it. We show these so that those of you who are interested can try them out.
You can mix many types of tuber plants in trays. Like sweet potato, Chinese potato.
I’m seeing these red leaves for the first time. I’ve seen the rest.
I got it this year. This is sweet taro.

Won’t you give me one of its saplings?
I shall uproot one for you straightaway. So you can see how it looks.

Why are you growing elephant yam in these sacks?
This is a low-lying place. So water-logging is very frequent.

This is Cherai, very close to the sea. But even here people use trays and other materials to do farming in a big way. The moot question is whether we desire to do farming or not. If we are interested, we will pursue our desire, no matter what the obstacles are. This is an example. If you think you don’t have the capacity to do things, ask Mr Biju. He will send you these trays and all the associated pieces of equipment. He will also tell you the advantages and disadvantages of different types of trays. He has become a farming expert, and started growing strawberry in trays. You must remember that he is growing strawberries and grapes close to the sea shore. When you say that you have not seen any tree except coconut palms near the sea shore, remember that he grows so many varieties here. You can see sugar cane too.

I have several varieties of the jack tree.
This is a bee hive.
A few dwarf honey bees had made a hive in the switchboard.

Is this an international design for bee keeping?
You can make it any way you wish. This model is very simple to make. This is the end cap of a four-inch pipe. This is a cut piece, and this is yet another. This is a nozzle that is commonly used in drip irrigation. Attach the nozzle here. On the top, you have a reducer. And above it, keep a wooden disc and create a hole on it. Attach one end of a tube to this nozzle; fix the other end on the surface of the honey bees’ hive, and fasten it there using M-seal. The tube should be at least two metres in length. That is to prevent the bees from returning to their old hive. With this length to travel, they usually won’t. Whenever they have to go out in search of nectar, they will have to crawl through the tube and go out of this hole on the wooden disc. The bees will return to this container through the hole, and gradually settle there instead of going to the old hive through this two-metre long tube. In this manner, nectar and pollen will get stored inside this container. When the nectar in the old hive gets over, the queen bee will exit from there, crawl through the tube and settle in the container. The entire process will take one or two months to function smoothly.

Earlier, I’ve tried to collect bees from rock crevices, by attracting them to jaggery placed in pots. But I never used two-metre tubes as you did. Invariably, the honey bees got stuck in the jaggery and died.

That is because there must have been a larger ecosystem inside the gap among the stones. You can collect honey bees only from places where they don’t have an ecosystem. The switchboard does not afford much. Nor do gaps within stones when we have sealed all the gaps with cement. Maybe the hives there are very small.

Maybe this is the reason. If they can move about through this tiny hole, they don’t have to remain in the old hive. Whatever they collect from outside, they will bring to this particular place.

Another peculiarity I noticed about your compound is that although you have cemented so much of the surface, it is not very noticeable. You have kept plants in every conceivable space. Do you have any idea how many plants you may have?
No. In fact, it was after seeing your Miyawaki videos that I started planting all the plants I could get hold of. After building this wall, I gave it some underpinning. Then I decided I could place some plants here. So I fixed a pipe there so that the wall will not fall. I gave a similar support down there and placed all those plants.
This is an aquaponics unit.
Here I grew Chinese potato.

Did you get a good harvest?
Yes. Whatever was left of the plants have sprouted again.

Didn’t you grow tomatoes here?
I didn’t plant tomatoes this time. Earlier I had both. Now that is over. Here you can see the small fry. So I have not installed a pump.
Does this tank have the same capacity as the other one?
This one is a 750-litre tank. As it is a compact one, I’ve placed a grow bed here.
Those of you who have very limited space available, can follow this model.
This bed is also a multi-purpose one.
This is a 750-litre tank, you say. So, in effect, the entire unit will weigh up to 1,000 kilos. It can be safely accommodated on your terrace. You can even think of a 1,000-litre capacity tank.
Indeed. It can be done even if you have only a small balcony.
And you can grow plants like mint, chilly, curry leaf and so on. Or vegetable plants too. You can grow all that a small family will need. Although I say all this, I’m a lazy man myself. I conduct experiments when I get time to spare. But it is because I have people to assist me that things move smoothly.

The peculiarity you observe here is that the entire work is done by Mr Biju and his family. They have pulled off things that may look impossible. This is an area close to the sea. The soil is not favourable to farming. The area is prone to water-logging. Despite all these problems, they are growing all kinds of vegetables here. I think there must be at least 200 different species of plants in this 20-cent compound. All are raised in different kinds of trays.

If anyone wants any technical advice from him, you may call him directly. There are several kinds of trays. You can ask him how each can be used profitably. He is growing not only tapioca and elephant yam in this soil, but strawberry and grapes too. So however limited the area, you can still do a lot of things. He is already planning to execute half of all this on the terrace. He is a man who has proven that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. You may seek him out as your mentor. I have, already!