PUPILS at a Vaal Triangle school are among the first in the country to grow vegetables through aquaponics, which uses fish farming and gravel instead of soil.
The technique works in a closed system where nutrients from fish tanks feed gravel grow beds. The gravel also works as a filter for the water and clean oxygenated water is then pumped back to the fish tanks.
The system uses 80%-90% less water than traditional farming methods.
Through a partnership between Air Products, a supplier and distributor of specialty gases, and Inmed, an international, philanthropic, nonprofit organisation, Carel de Wet Technical High School in Vanderbijlpark says it is the first school in South Africa to operate the largest commercial aquaponics unit in the country.
The project aims to address poverty and hunger in the area and also to get more pupils in the country interested in agriculture as a career.
According to Food Bank SA, about 11-million people in the country do not know where their next meal will come from and one in five children under the age of nine years suffers from stunted growth as a result of malnutrition.
Aquaponics is generating increasing interest, as alternative ways to growing food on land unsuitable for traditional farming methods are sought.
Last year, Richmond Mining and Exploration MD Martiens van der Merwe said his firm would be investigating the potential that aquaponics holds for mining companies that must invest in local community projects when they secure mining rights.
Inmed’s operations manager, Janet Ogilvie, said: "Small farmers have really bad soil and this solves that problem. You can grow up to 10 times what can be grown in traditional soil and in a much smaller space."
A total of six grow beds of tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers are managed by the school. Three of these are used for training and for students, using a variety of herbs and vegetables.
Air Products has invested more than R500,000 in bringing the farming system to the school. Inmed also runs an aquaponics programme in the Free State, at Orange Farm and in Limpopo, where the system is being taught to disabled people.
This kind of farming is also done in Jamaica and Peru, according to Ms Ogilvie.
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