A few years ago, as president of Enactus South Africa, Luvo Gugwana from Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, introduced aquaponics to a community that had never seen fish bred in tanks before. This initiative was part of an effort to explore sustainable farming methods unaffected by climate change.
“When I worked in agricultural-based communities, I was more focused on creating sustainable farming methods. We worked with a community where I introduced aquaponics systems. It was well received because those individuals had never seen fish being bred in tanks.”
The positive reception of the aquaponics systems and the community’s keen interest led Gugwana to establish Green-Arch Innovations, a company that designs aquaponics systems.
Under Gugwana’s leadership, Green-Arch Innovations has thrived, earning recognition for its innovative approaches to sustainable farming. The company’s mission is to empower communities with the knowledge and tools necessary to achieve food security and environmental sustainability.
Two birds, one stone
To Gugwana, the advantages of an aquaponics system are akin to winning the lottery.
“It’s very different,” he says. “You’re growing your fish and then you’re growing your crops in one system. It’s the fact that you can grow your crops using fish waste. You sell your fish, you sell your produce. It gives you multiple revenue streams.”
The integration of these two farming systems – aquaculture and horticulture – creates a system where both entities benefit from each other. The water circulates from the fish, enriched with nutrients from fish waste, to the crops, where it is filtered and enriched with oxygen necessary for the fish.
“It creates a sustainable farming environment. One feature of aquaponic systems is that the water circulating within your system remains in use. You don’t discard the water.”
Gugwana has developed a highly sustainable model for communities facing water scarcity, prioritising water conservation.
“You can retain the same volume of water for a longer period, with only 10% lost to evaporation. The system doesn’t have detrimental effects on the environment because you’re not discarding wastewater,” he explains.
Winning competitions to fund projects
Gugwana shares that one of his challenges is finding individuals who are skilled or experts in aquaculture production. Training people in the communities to operate the systems independently has also been challenging due to the cost involved.
“We relied mostly on research and incorporating small components of the system.
“We have to consult someone who only knows one part of the system, like working with researchers on the fish side and then independently working with researchers on the crop side. It’s rare to find someone knowledgeable in both systems,” he shares.
With his tenacious spirit, Gugwana has managed to overcome these challenges through collaboration.
“We partnered with private companies willing to fund some community initiatives through their corporate social investment. We also worked with a few corporations to support the initiatives to start projects in communities.”
In addition, Gugwana entered pitching competitions to raise funds. He won the Engen Pitch and Polish competition in 2022 as well as the Green Youth Indaba, boosting financial capital for his projects. He has also been selected by the prestigious Young African Leaders for his initiatives in food security, entrepreneurship, and rural development.
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Bright plans for the future
Gugwana is only getting started, planning to replicate these systems in every province in South Africa within the next five years.
“That’s our main objective… Identifying communities that we can work with, either cooperatives or individuals. That’s really our key model.”
So far, they have trained about 200 people on aquaponics systems through partnerships with various departments.
“We’re trying to engage more partners and departments to help us train more people to understand aquaponics and for those interested in starting their own systems.
“Working with communities is something that is truly at the heart of my project,” he says.
In addition to community projects, Gugwana hopes to introduce aquaponics into school curriculums.
“These aquaponics systems across different schools prepare students to understand the industry. Whenever they choose careers in agriculture, they will have a broad range of agricultural options to consider,” he explains.
Gugwana says they will soon be supplying retailers with produce. Their biggest customers at the moment are restaurants and hotels, which purchase most of the produce from their farms.
“We’ve received positive feedback. We conducted about four training sessions last year and 300 people this year have attended three training sessions as well. So, the feedback is growing. We keep seeing more interest in the sector and in understanding aquaponic systems,” he shares.
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