AN AQUAPONICS INDUSTRY SURVEY

Aquaponics is viewed as a sustainable technology that allows producers to grow fish and plants in a healthy, pesticide-free environment. Much of the interest is at the hobbyist level for backyard gardening but other interest groups include educators and commercial producers.  Aquaponics serves as a useful platform to teach a variety of academic subjects in a real-world context. In other words, a living laboratory that increases student engagement and participation.  Others have an interest in scaling up this technology to create a primary source of income.  While there is tremendous interest in aquaponics as a sustainable agricultural production practice, questions remain about the commercial viability this technology has in the real world.

In spite of the interest in aquaponics, there is little published data available about the status of the aquaponic industry as a whole. Supporting groups like extension, research, education and public agency personnel need this information to improve their understanding of this developing industry and create support programs and materials for practitioners. To that end, a survey was developed to generate a 'snapshot' of the current status of the aquaponics industry, discover trends based on previous surveys, and emerging issues needing immediate- and long-term attention.

The survey was developed using the online survey software, Qualtrics. The survey format included an introductory set of questions that all participants answered, which helped to develop comparisons among the groups. At the end of the common questions, participants were asked to self-select into interest groups that align with their own aquaponics experience. The self-selection led to more individualized questions that gathered relevant information for the three main stakeholder groups - hobbyist, educators, and commercial producers. The survey concluded with a common set of socio-demographic questions. The survey was administered to participants from social media aquaponic interest groups, professional society groups, and email list serves.