ARU Students Are Setting Up An Aquaponic
ne of the attributes of an African Rural University (ARU) graduate is being Innovative. They create new technologies or modify existing ones to increase the capacity of rural people for self-generating and sustainable change. The graduates generate and disseminate new knowledge and share it with others through different foras.
ARU second year students are implementing a technology known as Aquaponics , which is the rearing of fish and growing of vegetables. The Students are recycling plastic bottles to construct a greenhouse where a fish pond and vegetables will be grown.
According to the students, they intend to use a pump irrigation system to supply the fish pond with water and also watering the vegetables. The community surrounding ARU is contributing to the project through collecting the plastic bottles which are to be used in the construction of the green house.
Mr. Isingoma Sadaya-Lecturer for Appropriate Technology,the project not only demonstrates new innovations to the people of Kagadi but also contributes to environmental protection, which in turn improves soil fertility and hence better yields for farmers.
“We want to demonstrate to the public that it doesn’t stop at drinking soda or water. The bottle can server a much more purpose in environmental protection”.
SAYS SADAYO
One of the core elements of the ARU Education Model for Rural Transformation is the Principles of Systems Thinking, which looks at the interconnectedness of different elements of a system and how each element influences and is influenced by others. Plastic bottles contributes to soil infertility, they are also a home for mosquitoes especially those plastics that contain stagnant water.
Sadayo added that once the green house is completed, the community members surrounding ARU shall be invited on campus fora learning visit in order to replicate the technology in their communities. The Epicenter Managers (who are graduates of ARU working at the Sub county Local Government as change makers and change agents) shall also be brought on board to take the technology to other sub counties in Kagadi Kibaale and Kakumiro.