Aquaponic systems as excellent agricultural research instruments in Albania

RIGERS BAKIU¹* & JULIAN SHEHU²

¹Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania;

²Department of Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania.

*Corresponding author w-mail: rigers.bakiu@ubt.edu.al

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Abstract

Aquaponic systems are recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) that incorporate the production of plants without soil. Recirculating systems are designed to raise large quantities of fish in relatively small volumes of water by treating the water to remove toxic waste products and then reusing the water many times. The accumulated metabolic by-products, like non-toxic nutrients and organic matter, need not be wasted if they are channeled into secondary crops that have economic value or in some way benefit the primary fish production system. We plan to use as secondary crops, terrestrial plants grown in conjunction with fish. This integrated system is referred to as an aquaponic system. The goal is to culture a vegetable that will generate the highest level of income per unit area per unit time. Culinary herbs are the best choice. We think that there may be also good potential for growing traditional medicinal plants in aquaponic systems, especially in Albania, which is one of the leading exporters of medicinal herbs in Europe. The aims and objectives of building an aquaponic system in the Agricultural University of Tirana are 1. to create an excellent scientific research environment inside the greenhouses, where the aquaponic systems can be equipped with all necessary monitoring instruments in order to evaluate the performance of several experiments that can be performed by PhD students under the assistance of technical staff members and 2. to establish a perfect scientific environment where new ideas may come out from the collaborations between PhD students, researchers and professors.

Keywords: traditional medicinal plants; recirculating aquaculture systems; hydroponic subsystems.