PreprintArticleVersion 1Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Technology-Business-Management of Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) for Sustainable Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities
Version 1
: Received: 1 October 2022 / Approved: 5 October 2022 / Online: 5 October 2022 (12:30:37 CEST)
How to cite:
Benjamin, E.O.; Ola, O.; Buchenrieder, G.R. Technology-Business-Management of Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) for Sustainable Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities. Preprints2022, 2022100041. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0041.v1
Benjamin, E.O.; Ola, O.; Buchenrieder, G.R. Technology-Business-Management of Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) for Sustainable Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities. Preprints 2022, 2022100041. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0041.v1
Benjamin, E.O.; Ola, O.; Buchenrieder, G.R. Technology-Business-Management of Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) for Sustainable Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities. Preprints2022, 2022100041. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0041.v1
APA Style
Benjamin, E.O., Ola, O., & Buchenrieder, G.R. (2022). Technology-Business-Management of Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) for Sustainable Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0041.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Benjamin, E.O., Oreoluwa Ola and Gertrud R Buchenrieder. 2022 "Technology-Business-Management of Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) for Sustainable Urban Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0041.v1
Abstract
The urban population in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa, is rapidly increas-ing. As towns and cities grow, so does the demand for fish protein. While flow-through aqua-culture can provide fresh, healthy and nutritious fish protein, it is plagued by extensive land re-quirement as well as effluent discharge, thus, unsuitable for city regions. Alternatively, small-scale Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) could improve food and nutritional security (FNS), livelihoods as well as reduce environmental degradation in urban areas despite land and water constraints. The question however remains - what are the key technical, business and managerial issues, surrounding small-scale RAS in urban farming? This study reviews the RAS prototype of the Sustainable Aquaponics for Nutritional and Food Security in Urban Sub-Saharan Africa (SANFU) II project based on mass balance and stock density, relevant for fish survival and/or availability as well as net cash-flow analyses. The results suggest that small-scale RAS are technically and financially viable only with family labor having proper aquaculture monitoring and management skills. Furthermore, access to adequate equipment and inputs as well as electricity for the recirculating system are crucial. Urban innovation actors will adopt RAS if operations are profitable given that family labor is employed.
Keywords
Food security; Urban farming; Fish protein; RAS; Land; Water; Sub-Sahara Africa
Subject
Engineering, Architecture, Building and Construction
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
