Agri-Aquaculture System (IAAS) - Efficiency and diversification on food production

• Grant number: 24/00010-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 29, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Fishery Resources and Fishery Engineering - Aquaculture
• Principal Investigator: Fabiana Garcia Scaloppi
• Grantee: Fabiana Garcia Scaloppi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesca. Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Fernando André Salles ; Luis Felipe Villani Purquerio ; Luiz Henrique Castro David ; Marcello Villar Boock ; Sara M Pinho

Abstract

In face of the need for solutions in food production, technologies that use less resources, especially water and electricity, our proposal aims to increase the biodiversity of aquaculture making it even more efficient, resilient and sustainable. We are proposing an intelligent and low-cost aquaponics system, which makes more efficient use of resources and results in high productivity and high nutritional value products. The goals of this project are related to the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and to meet them, the team will develop an experiment divided in two phases that will address the following topics: 1. technical and economic characterization of the decoupled aquaponics system, 2. periphyton as natural feeding of fish and as biofilter, 3. competition of commercial lettuce Lactuca sativa varieties in NFT of decoupled aquaponics system with or without periphyton and 4. selection of vegetables with high nutritional value for decoupled aquaponics system. The experiments will be evaluated based on five main approaches: technical feasibility (productive performance of fish and vegetables), economic viability, nutrient balance, nutritional quality of products and sustainability. (AU)