Technology is the secret to greater food productivity.
Shortly after introducing the Solar-Powered Irrigation System which could provide water to 1-million hectares of rice farms in five years, a group of Asian-American technicians has come with the “Circles of Life.”
The “Circles of Life” are actually two 30-foot diameter circular tanks which could hold and raise up to 6,000 Tilapia fingerlings in one tank and grow vegetables using improvised Aquaponics in the other.
The secret to this new technology is the Solar-Powered Aeration System which moves the water from the Tilapia tank to the Vegetable tank where Kangkong (watercress) filters the water and pumps it back to the fish tank.
The water from the Tilapia tank carrying fish wastes serves as the fertilizer to the Kangkong and other vegetables planted.in perforated containers partlysubmerged in the water.
The Kangkong and other vegetables serve as the.natural filters before water is pumped back into the fish tank.
The.movement of the water using what designer-inventor Rocky French, a Fil-Am based in Southern California but originally from Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat creates an aeration which allows higher density of Tilapia raised in a relatively small tank.
The key component of this innovation is the Venturi-System aeration equipment which operates using a small water pump powered by at least six solar panels.
It was I who actually suggested to French the concept of raising fish in tanks.
The idea entered my mind when President Rody Duterte announced the dismantling of the fishpens choking Laguna de Bay.
With the help of young solar technicians Moses Khuu, Kyu Whang and Gabriel Esparagoza, French designed a working model in his Tilapia Fish Farm in the.middle of the desert in Coachella Valley, Southern California.
After seeing the working.model last November, I asked French to build two proto-types in the Philippines.
One was built in front of the Dept. of Agriculture office in Quezon City but it still has to be perfected as it lacks the Venturi-System aerator.
Yesterday, I visited the second proto-type installed by American technicians Moses Khuu and Kyu Whang just beside the Solar-Powered Irrigation System which has already been perfected.
Moses Khuu told me the “Circles of Life” will be fully operational by Saturday this week.
Looking at the two circular fish tanks yesterday, I started imagining how this would contribute to greater food production in the country.
This system could be established in the banks of Laguna de Bay, rivers, upland areas and even in the backyards of many homes in the country.
Even the rich living in Metro Manila with enough space in the backyards of their homes could now raise their own fish.
I have already asked President Duterte to officially “commisdion” both the Solar-Powered Irrigation System and Solar-Powered Fish and Vegetable Tanks called the “Circles of Life.”
When President Duterte switches on these two innovations, he will literally be opening up a new and brighter horizon in Philippine agriculture and fisheries.
(Photos of the Circles of Life by Mayette Tudlas)
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