CLARK FREEPORT—Hydroponics and aquaponics, two modern methods of growing food without using soil, are now being implemented by 900 students, including 100 persons with disability (PWDs) in the surrounding communities of this economic zone.
Hydroponics is a subset of hydroculture that uses mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. Aquaponics refers to any system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics in a symbiotic environment.
Pioneered by Dr. Chito F. Sace of the Central Luzon State University, the new farming methods are sustainable because they produce more food with less water, the professor said.
Sace said these farming techniques use 90 percent less water, as it is just being recycled in a tank. The systems also use a soil-less culture “because the plants receive its essential elements from nutrients and solutions in the water, needed for their normal growth and development.”
The production method uses vertical gardens, and its “personalized model” uses less than a square meter in area at 1.6 meters in height, with layers of “growing tubes” for leafy vegetables and herbs production under a protected structure, he said.
The beneficiaries of the modern farming technique are 600 students of F.G. Nepomuceno Memorial High School, 216 students of Mabalacat Elementary School in Mabalacat, and 100 PWDs in the cities of Angeles and Mabalacat, Sace added.
The hydroponic and aquaponic systems are adopted by the Clark Development Corp. as its corporate social responsibility to help residents near the former American air force base.
With an initial funding of P105,000 from the CDC for the seedling and nutrient solution, the system was piloted in the cities of Angeles and Mabalacat with the PWD so they can implement the new agricultural techniques in their areas, the government firm said.
The Sace agricultural system can be purchased for just P9,000, the professor added.