Union Minister of State for Education, Communication and Electronics & IT, Sanjay Dhotre virtually inaugurated an ‘Aquaponics Vertical Farming System’ developed at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana. System was established by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali under collaborative project funded by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), GOI.
Applauding the facility, Dhotre emphasized to modernize the food production sectors to double farmers’ income and enhance climate change resilience among the farming community. Acclaiming aquaponics as a promising technology for organic farming, he further advocated to publicize such technologies for environmental and human well-being.
Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice Chancellor, GADVASU informed that ‘Aquaponics’ involves synergistic combination of ‘Aquaculture’ and ‘Hydroponics’ to promote vertical farming with enhanced nutrient utilization efficiency though recycling of water between the two components, to produce fish and vegetables together. It offers potential future solution to global warming, with only 10-12% water and land requirement compared to traditional fish and vegetable farming systems, fulfilling the concept of ‘More Crop Per Drop’. He further added that the said facility will help GADVASU to take up required R&D for its optimized utilization under climatic conditions of the State, especially for stakeholders with small land holdings.
In the keynote address, Dr. Hemant Darbari, DG C-DAC accentuated that the said automated aquaponic system will serve as an excellent R&D and demonstration provision for skill development in aspiring stakeholders of the region to produce more food from less land. Smt. Jyoti Arora, Special Secretary MeitY emphasized to make the facility sustainable through innovative techniques to attract more youth into technology driven agriculture sector.
The project in charge, Dr. Jaspal Singh, Joint Director C-DAC, Mohali and his team implemented the project at GADVASU in alliance with the collaboration partner, Dr. Meera D. Ansal, Dean College of Fisheries and Dr. Kulbir Singh, Principle Olericulturist (PAU) under dynamic managerial leadership of Dr. J.P.S. Gill, Director Research, GADVASU.
