FEED THE INITIATIVE

The timing is right

By 2050, when more than 6 billion people are estimated to be living in urban
areas, the global population will require about 60 percent more food than is
currently in production, according to research published in the Journal of
Agricultural Studies. Bringing production to cities could help feed a growing
hunger for fresh, local food. And vertical farms are innovating in anticipation of
the demand.
Along with the increasing population, people are also becoming educated
and are more conscious about their health issues. They prefer vegetables
that are organic in nature, without any usage of pesticides or any other form
of chemical fertilizers. The demand for organic food is growing and will
continue to grow and farmers are worried about these issues. Vertical
farming allows farmers to have a temperature-controlled, pest-free world.
Workers wear hazmat-like suits and hairnets as they tend to rows of leafy
greens that stack all the way up to the ceiling in a place that has no seasons.
These warehouses can grow organic produce in less space than traditional
farmland uses and bring farms to unexpected locations, including urban food
deserts.
Moreover, vertical farming relies on improving the model of traditional
agriculture by relying on the most high-tech tools available to reduce water
and land use and to eliminate pesticide use. This makes vertical farming a new
emerging concept not only in developed countries like US but also in
developing countries like Nepal where most of people in urban areas relies on
food being transported from other areas.
Vertical farming is the practice of producing food in vertically stacked layers,
vertically inclined surfaces and/or integrated in other structures. The modern
idea

of

vertical

farming

uses controlled-environment

agriculture (CEA)

technology, where all environmental factors can be controlled. These

facilities utilize artificial control of light, environmental control (humidity,
temperature, gases...) and fertigation. Some vertical farms use techniques
similar to greenhouses, where natural sunlight can be augmented with
artificial lighting and metal reflectors. Vertical farmings are of various types.
1. Hydroponics: The predominant growing system used in vertical farms,
hydroponics involves growing plants in nutrient solutions that are free
of soil. The plant roots are submerged in nutrient solution, which is
frequently monitored and circulated to ensure that the correct
chemical composition Is maintained
2. Aeroponics: The National Aeronautical and Space Administration
(NASA) are responsible for developing this innovative indoor growing
technique. IN the 1900s, NASA was interested in finding efficient ways
to grow plants in space and coined the term aeroponics, defined as
"growing plants in an air/mist environment with no soil and very little
water
3. Aquaponics: An auquaponics system takes the hydroponic system one
step further, combining plants and fish in the same ecosystem. Fish are
grown in indoor ponds, producing nutrient rich waste that is used as
feed source for the plants in the vertical farm. The plants, in turn, filter
and purify the wastewater, which recycled to the fish ponds. Although
aquaponics is used in smaller scale vertical farming systems, most
commercial vertical farm systems focus on producing only few fast
growing vegetable crops and dont include an aquaponics component.
This simplifies the economies and production issues and maximizes
efficiency. However, new standardized aquaponic systems may help
make this closed-cycle system more popular.

Vertical farming practiced on a large scale in urban centers has great

potential to:
1. Supply enough food in a sustainable fashion to comfortably feed all of
humankind for the foreseeable future
2. Allow large tracts of land to revert to the natural landscape restoring
ecosystem functions and services
3. Safely and efficiently use the organic portion of human and agricultural
waste to produce energy through methane generation, and at the same
time significantly reduces populations of vermin (e.g., rats, cockroaches)
4. Take advantage of abandoned and unused urban spaces;
5. Break the transmission cycle of agents of disease associated with a
fecally-contaminated environment
6. Allow year-round food production without loss of yields due to climate
change or weather-related events
7. Eliminate the need for large-scale use of pesticides and herbicides
8. Provide a major new role for agrochemical industries (i.e., designing
and producing safe, chemically-defined diets for a wide variety of
commercially viable plant species
9. Create an environment that encourages sustainable urban life,
promoting a state of good health for all those who choose to live in cities
All of this may sound too good to be true, but careful analysis will show that
these are all realistic and achievable goals, given the full development of a
few new technologies.

Agriculture plays an important role in meeting the basic needs of the

majority of people in developing countries and Nepal is no exception.
Agriculture sector has more than one third contribution to total Gross
Domestic Production (GDP) of Nepal. There has always been much neglect
regarding the agricultural sector for ages. Realization of better country's
economy with prosperous agricultural sector is there but unwillingness to act
upon it is a problem. Farmers of more than 60% of the fertile land have
unheard the irrigation facility yet and still depend upon rain water for
cultivation. Lack of proper education or training, farmers apply same old
fashioned way of farming that yields less than that with new techniques.
Somewhere fertilizers are used in excess manner whereas some where they
are insufficient. Management of the harvested crop has been one of the
prominent problems for the farmers. Similarly, the people of urban areas are
deprived from the fresh vegetables and with this increasing population,
which is estimated to be 33,597,032 (National Population and housing
census 2011, 2014).
In a country like Nepal with more than 80% of the people engaged in
agriculture, the country cannot afford to neglect this sector at all. Sadly
enough, Nepal does not enjoy a status of self-sufficiency in agricultural
products as it is forced to import agro products on a large scale from other
countries like India and china. Every year, Nepal makes a large expenditure
in the import of rice, crude soya bean oil, vegetable, maize, crude palm oil,
etc. from different countries. The yield from domestic agriculture is at such a
low level, hence hazarding the entire economy due to various issues such as
obsolete farming methods, lack of irrigation facility, poverty, dual ownership
of land, lack of agriculture credit and so forth. Nepal is an idea to overcome a
few of these challenges, especially the issues of traditional farming methods
and lack of irrigation facility. Moreover, Nepal targets urban agriculture with
concepts such as indoor farming vertical farming, poly house farming,
aquaponics in view of the increasing rate of migration from villages to urban

areas. Rough estimates show that more than half of Nepals population will
be living in urban areas by the year 2020. 100% dependence on rural based
agriculture is not always sensible from aspects of transportation cost,
consumers welfare and other factors.
Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. Aquaculture
efficiently farms fish while hydroponics ensures controlled use of water and
nutrients in plant cultivation. In aquaponics, water saturated with nutrientrich fish excreta from aquaculture tanks is used in plant breeding before
being circulated back. The technology produces fish and vegetables without
the need for costly fertilizers. Aquaponics research and development has
advanced over the last three decades, with several thousand household-level
systems installed in the United States and Australia. The system, operating
since August, cost US$ 10,000 with annual production estimated to be worth
US$ 8,000.
The technology is suited to urban areas where land is scarce. But, due to
high capital investment, it "has not been a profitable business for lower
income people.
A major challenge in Nepal, which faces long power cuts during winter, is the
cost of energy backup to keep the system running continuously. The
technology holds promise for rural communities, "especially for denselypopulated countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam, where farmers
have limited land to provide their families food with protein, minerals and
vitamins.

Aquaponics uses up to 90% less water than converntional methods

Aquaponics produces up to ten times more vegetables and crops in the

same amount of space and time

Aquaponics uses up to 75% less energy than most almost any other
farming method

Aquaponics is guaranteed to be free from chemical fertilizers,

pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other chemicals

Aquaponics require only about the labor necessary for almost all
other food production method

Aquaponics virtually eliminates weeds, pests, diseases, viruses and pathogens for both
aquatic and plant life alike;

Aquaponics can be used in almost any situation and can range in size, from desk top
systems to large scale commercial farms;

Claimed Advantages

1. Significant

reduction

in

the

usage

of

water (compared to

traditional soil methods of growing plants) as all water is recycled

through the system and it is not necessary to discard or change any
water (under normal conditions). It has been reported on various
forums and websites that water usage is around 90% lower than
traditional soil gardening.
2. Growth

of

plants

methods using soil.

is

significantly

faster than

traditional

In aquaponics the plant roots are watered

(flooded) at least once an hour in most system and have constant

access to high levels of nitrates that are in the water. Though soil
gardens can be set up to provide good levels of water and the required
nutrients.
3. There is no need to use artificial fertilizer to feed the plants. In
the perfect system this is probably true though some aquaponics
owners add "supplements" such as iron to their system to compensate
for non-ideal environments (e.g. high pH systems). Fertilizer in the

traditional sense is not used and indeed using fertilizer would likely
harm or kill the fish. So there is probably a real cost saving over soil
gardening in this area as there is no need to be improve soil before
planting or during plant growth.
4. There is no need to dispose of fish waste or provide an
artificial filtration system. In land based aquaculture systems either
water needs to be replaced or some filtration needs to be provided to
remove ammonia (fish waste) from the water. Filtration needs to be
provided for the same reasons in aquaponics systems - though in a lot
of systems the filtration serves as the medium to grow the plants and
the plants remove the (less toxic to fish) nitrates from the system.
5. Significant reduction in land is required to grow the same
crops as traditional soil methods. There is no concrete evidence to
support this claim. However, as water and nutrients are constantly
provided it should be possible to grow plants close together with the
main requirements for spacing being access to light.
6. It's organic. Since, the fish are fed organic feed and food grade
plastics are used then this could be the case. Though there seems to
be little good evidence to show that non-organic crops are necessarily
unsafe or less healthy then organic ones.
7. No weeding or bending down on the ground required. Many
backyard systems are setup so that the grow beds are at waist height
(to allow gravity return of water to the fish tank) so this allows for
a pleasant way to inspect and harvest the plants.

Claimed Disadvantages:
1. Can be expensive to setup as the system requires pumps, tubing,
and tanks/beds. This is certainly true though it doesn't necessarily
need to be. A small backyard system purchased complete from an
aquaponics retailer can cost over $2,000 installed and the larger
backyard systems capable of feeding a family between $5,000 and
$10,000.
2. You need a green house to really have a good aquaponics
system.
3. Setup requires technical knowledge of aquaponics systems and
hence is possible to make mistakes. True - there are stories around of
people who loose fish and give up on their aquaponics system early on
and there is some knowledge required to establish the necessary
bacteria within the system.
4. Water needs to be constantly monitored to make sure the water
quality is OK for fish. This is certainly the case during the first couple of
months. After the system has matured water testing is usually carried
out only once a week unless there are problems.
5. Aquaponics requires electric energy input to maintain and recycle
water within the system. In most cases you will need to provide
electricity to run a water pump and possibly aeration pumps as well.
6. If one or more components fail this could lead to the loss of
fish and or plants. In this regard you are dependent on using reliable
technology (and back up systems) to ensure that your fish, which
require oxygen in the water, remain alive and healthy. Your plants are

likely to be unaffected in the short term, as the growing medium will

likely retain more than enough moisture, though if the fish are not
provided enough oxygen, they can suffer and die. This is the same
situation for aquaculture systems.
7. You can't grow root crops. You can grow pretty much anything in an
aquaponics system from fruit trees to root crops, though depending on
the type of growing medium potatoes and carrots may grow into some
weird shapes. Most people focus on growing leafy vegetables.

References
Natinal Population and housing census 2011. (2014). Population projection (20112031) , 1.

https://attra.ncat.org/calendar/question.php/what-are-the-different-types
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?
q=cache:http://www.takepart.com/feature/2016/05/23/vertical-farming-20
http://www.verticalfarm.com/?page_id=36
http://www.gyrecleanup.org/csaaquaponics/
https://sites.google.com/site/aquapanaponics/4-projectupdates/advantagesanddisadvantagesofaquaponics