Uggah asks farmers to adopt aquaponics system
DARO: Those wishing to harvest fish and pesticide-free premium organic vegetables that fetch a higher price than ordinary farm produce have been asked to invest in aquaponics.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who is Minister of Modernisation of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development, made the call after visiting Borneo Aquaponics and Organic Farm in Bintulu yesterday.
“The system is to make use of the fish culture waste to fertilise vegetables. There is no insecticide and no chemical fertiliser. It is purely from the fish waste, all the fertiliser comes from the waste,” he explained to thesundaypost.
Aquaponics is the combination of rearing fish and hydroponics – growing plants without soil – integrated into an ecosystem.
The fish waste provides an organic food source for the plants, while the plants naturally filter the water for the fish.
Uggah said there is much potential for modern farming using aquaponics.
“This is one of our future directions, where fish waste can be circulated to become fertiliser and the fish water can be recycled back to the fish – a very interesting technology,” he said, adding that fish waste has been a big problem for local fish breeders in Sarawak.
Uggah said it is impressive how scientific methods have been introduced to control insects without using dangerous chemicals.
“They also have technology to catch insects, thus needing no insecticides,” he said.
He said the technology is very promising because society is now very conscious of the quality of food and the demand for organic food is consistently on the rise.
He said the future of vegetable growing is very bright with the introduction of nature-friendly technology that will boost both production and value.
“This is one of the directions that we want to develop for our vegetable industry, they do not need big land size, and this farm is only on a five-acre site,” he said.
Uggah stressed that even though the price is slightly higher, the demand for aquaponics vegetables is very high because they are free of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and insecticides.
“This is what we encourage for the future – there is a company in Kuching doing organic chicken farm and another company planting rock melon (on a site) less than two acres,” he said, adding that many modern farms are operating throughout Sarawak now.
Since the production of premium agriculture produce will be on an upward trend, Uggah said his ministry is now focussing on setting up marketing facilities.
He is also very happy to learn that many local players in Sarawak are now working closely with their Peninsular Malaysian counterparts to further develop modern farming technology in Sarawak.