PrAEctiCe is an EU funded Horizon project focusing on food production and farming in Africa. It provides a novel agroecology indicator set for East Africa, aimed at helping smallholder farmers in their agroecological transition. The project goes beyond the existing indicator frameworks with a decision support tool for agroecology advisors supporting the selection of the best suited combination of agroecological farming practices in a local context. One of the objectives of the project was to establish three IAA systems focusing on sustainability and circular economy. Each of these systems were adapted to an East African environment to showcase available technologies and opportunities that can be replicable by local farmers.
Living Lab one (LL1) builds on a previous Horizon 2020 project “VicInAqua”, in the facilities of the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (DALF) in Kisumu, Kenya. It is a Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) using municipal wastewater, filtered with a Membrane BioReactor (MBR). The system was upgraded with a new and bigger MBR, and new grow-out ponds holding tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). The wastewater from the raised ponds is used to irrigate local vegetables production. A Black Soldier Fly (BSF) production unit was also constructed to support fish feed formulation and the manure is used to fertilise the crops. New Photo-Voltaic (PV) panels were installed to provide a totally autonomous power system, without the need of the unreliable national grid. Finally, a reliable sensor system was installed, monitoring a range of physicochemical parameters in real time.
Living Lab two (LL2) is an aquaponics system, integrating fish production with a range of crops. It was built in the facilities of National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Kajjansi, Uganda. The system includes six lines of a combination of media-based beds and Deep-Water Culture (DWC) tanks and one line with Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) systems. Solar panels provide sufficient energy 24 hours a day, being independent from the national grid. The nutrients needed for the crop farming, are produced from the wastes of tilapia fish raised in circular tanks. A sensors system to monitor important parameters for both fish and plants was also installed.
The third living lab (LL3) will utilize a pond culture system integrated with poultry and vegetables. It was built in the Farmer Training Centre of Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT) in Morogoro, Tanzania. A poultry house and two concrete ponds were constructed. The valuable energy for the needs of the system is provided by both PVs (on the top of the poultry house) and floating panels (on the surface of the ponds), trying not to occupy valuable space, which can be used for crops instead. The poultry waste is used to fertilize newly constructed ponds and the wastewater from the tilapia ponds will support the irrigation of the crops.
Data collected from the monitoring systems are stored and will be used in combination with satellite images to acquire pond-specific production quantities.
The present study is part of the PrAEctiCe Project funded by EU, under GA number 101084248.