Aquaculture has the potential to make a significant contribution to food security, employment, and income in East Africa. However, attaining sufficiency in food supply to support a growing population without compromising ecosystem functioning remains a top agenda of researchers in East Africa. In this context, efficient and sustainable food production systems such as aquaponics are viewed as an important and environmentally friendly technology for adaptation under resource-limited environments. This review critically examines the status of the different aquaponic systems with varying innovations as part of efficient -water-energy-circular systems for adoption by East Africa farmers. Opportunities for enhancing aquaponic farming are discussed, and based on the current information, suggested strategies, models, and designs are being developed for adoption. Available information shows that, producing food in soilless systems is a promising strategy, as this method utilizes significantly less water than traditional agriculture and takes advantage of the abundant solar energy critical in aquaponics innovation. However, in spite of the fact that aquaponics has the potential to change the phase of conventional agricultural practices, adoption of these technologies by farmers across East Africa is still very low, and is greatly attributed to very limited knowledge of aquaponics relating to suitable systems designs and lack of appropriates inputs hence leading to break-even for profits failure. There is limited expertise to customise the highly sophisticated models and designs used in the developed world. This is coupled with challenges related to changing social customary practices thus undermine diffusion and adoption of aquaponics innovations. Also lack of policy guidelines on aquaponics aspects complicates the situation. Basic modular aquaponic systems that incorporate desirable agroecological aspects that efficiently balances the growth of plants and fish to enhance nutrient utilisation are being proposed. To guide small-scale farmers, three different modular aquaponic systems are being established at Kajjansi Aquaculture Research and Development Centre for optimisation. These include media-based culture (MBC), nutrient film technique (NFT), and deep-water culture (DWC). The developed modular systems will use low-tech installations and making them suitable for use in East African countries.
Key words: Circular Energy, Nutrients, Designs, Aquaponics