Aquaponic system and Bangladesh : Aquaponic Production of Tilapia and Water Spinach in Bangladesh

Land and water scarcity is the burning issue worldwide. Hence, the popularity and utilization of aquaponic system is increasing day by day. Aquaponic, the perfect engineering of ecology, is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponic cultivation of plants (hydroponic vegetables, flower, and/or herb) in a re-circulating system, utilizing the nutrients present in the aquaculture effluents to produce plants with commercial value. Within this synergistic interaction, the respective ecological weakness of aquaculture and hydroponics are converted into strength. Though the concept of modern aquaponic system has been developed in the late 70s and early 80s, but very new in Bangladesh. Aquaponics can be considered a sustainable agricultural production system as it does not deplete any non-renewable resources that are essential to agriculture in order to sustain the agricultural practices. Here, an experiment is described which was conducted to assess the water spinach production in aquaponic system using two different media at the Mini Hatchery Building in the southern side of the Faculty of Fisheries, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh from June to september 2014.