INAPRO - Innovative Aquaponics for Professional Application

Geographical location	Belgium Germany Netherlands
Keywords	Agricultural production system aquaculture fishery horticulture integrated farming Farming practice Food quality / processing and nutrition Plant production and horticulture tomato Water management
Agricultural sectors	Other sectors
Main funding source	EU Framework programmes
Project acronym	INAPRO
Project type	Research project
Starting date	2016
End date	2018
Project status	Ongoing
Website	INAPRO

Title (in English):

Language:

English

Objective of the project (native language):

Aquaponics is a food production system that couples aquaculture and horticulture. In an aquaponic system, the nutrient-rich water from the fish unit is used as fertiliser for the hydroponically grown crops, which therefore reduces the sewage of the fish component. Aquaponics is a highly efficient way of producing food but is yet to spread onto the market. This is mainly due to a lack of stability, economic profitability, and technical and technological standardisation. The INAPRO project aims to overcome these limitations by innovating and improving aquaponics.

Objective of the project (in English):

Description of activities (native language):

INAPRO aims at improving current approaches to aquaponics through the development of a model and the integration of innovative technologies allowing to save water and to optimise energy and nutrient management. Indeed, INAPRO allows the production of local, healthy and sustainable food minimising the water and carbon footprint.
The INAPRO system is scalable to different greenhouses, from large scale rural facilities to small urban faming systems, and adaptable to different geographical and climatic conditions. At the time being, an INAPRO test facility in Abtshagen (Germany), is already running and producing tilapia and tomatoes. By spring 2016, two other demonstration sites will be built in Europe, one in Waren (Germany) and the other in Murcia (Spain).

Contact person:

Contact e-mail:

inapro@igb-berlin.de

Project coordinator