Replying to the hydroponics and aquaculture posters..

I am firmly convinced that these methods will be our only source of salvation.

Personally, I'm hedging on aquaponics as it's closer to a closed cycle eco-system in my viewpoint.

No-one is willing to change and the problem is accelerating.

If we have the 'dead zones' in the UK and the EU as shown on the maps, then the rest of the world has no chance.

So I'm investing and my Khmer friend too.

I've studied it for a couple of years - watched the commercial large scale enterprises spring up from the original home-brew Murray Hallam practical courses in Australia, so it's a goer!!

We are starting the small-scale demo straightaway..

I am fairly certain it is not commercially viable for the local market as fish is 3000 riels a kilo and the plant side is limited.

However I am purchasing land in Canada for the real operation.. It goes like this

Fish: Trout
Vegetables: Lettuce
Fruit: Strawberries
Extra: Legal Organic Weed

As I say - I'm happy to hear from anyone who has experience.

Thanks

Agree, Ute.
-it's just hard to not divert on this topic particularly. It spills over into so many other aspects of everybody's lives.
But generally i agree with this current (apparently anyway) rigorous campaign by the Mods to keep things on topic. We need a bit of imposed rectitude, and the lash, to keep us on track. Some of us anyway.

but back to the sandpit - oops, i mean the mighty Mekong.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2019 10:28 pm The Thais and vietnamese are masters of aquaculture.
Serious science stuff if you want to compete with them.
Aussies are making it big with farming vegan crayfish - huge cost and enviro savings by feeding them lawn clippings.
Top dollar product for asian markets.Tropical conditions. Freshwater.
But they needed lots of long hard science to get there, and still use high-tech to farm profitably.

Maybe worth checking out tho', for cambodia. You probably don't need the high-tech/high-returns that big modern producers use. Downscale a bit?

They are with their own ventures like many with the skills, land, education in the working principles, or even family background. Then why should they not, It was here in Asia where it all first came from, still today the poor rice farmer puts the fish in the paddy field, three main reasons, the fish eat most things at their level and habitat that would harm the crop, also the fish naturally fertilise the rice crop, in return the rice makes the water more habitable for the fish, and finally, hopefully the farmer has a good crop to sell and fish to eat or sell, being its a ongoing rotation progress. Cambodia is a little behind I would think on Aquaponics, has in the modern system farming, they run programs here to teach students and farmers in Hydroponics, has I had mentioned, and I only know from years ago of a Khmer farm in Phnom Penh, but I also know of a few successful hydro farms, one of these is in Koh Kong, at the time I visited I asked the question of Aquaponics, he shook his head, said he didn't really understand. I think more on the lines that this worked and it makes money, so why change, the farm at that time grew one product and had a income of $1000 per month. But with the situation regarding the demise of natural fish stocks things may change, with this said, I have read somewhere that there was some interests in fish farming and also Aquaponics, this with the usual outcome with who will lead the farming of what stock is needed and possible control, and of what method, even so it would make a change to having many imports. I can see that being needed more in past years with land not being farmed for different reasons, lets think of landmines for one, and also a cheaper quality of the over-border market. Pork was one of the main areas I was thinking of here, it could be so it may follow the same trends, being that it may also go the same way with the fish markets, more so if the farmer can't produce here for less then the price the trader can buy from neighbouring countries. It also could be very much regulated by authority's, one example I have on this, knowing someone whom fish farmed (like the Thais) with the fish stocks contained on the river. But it cost him over night in double costs on fish food and more pay-outs legal or not to make the venture work. Whoever takes on this venture of Aquaponics will have to keep up with legalities, but first what could be a stumbling block is the basic principals of running the system, the need of having water and electric, as being discussed in this thread, and subject, hydro dams causing low levels of water, and without water no electricity can be produced, but the knock on effect of progress is the Mekong River dying a slow but certain death.

This I came across, I would like someday, to take a journey to have look.



In Hanoi, Koi Cafe & Spa welcomed some magnificent koi carps which participate in the aquaponics ecosystem of the restaurant.
For novices, aquaponics consists in cultivating vegetables in a closed circuit thanks to the breeding of fish. At Koi Cafe & Spa, fish dungs are collected and stored in clay soil tanks, which convert them into nutrients for plants. By feeding on it, plants then filter the water for the fish.

http://en.emotions.de-dietrich.com/to-d ... quaponics/


Climbing-frame library in Vietnam has a thriving aquaponics system

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/01/20/vac-l ... om_block_1

how does the river look today?
lucky B's - i'm missing it to death

get out there folks, while its still there
you never ever ever regret sitting on that river, or any cambodian waterway.
keeps you sane too

Experts doubt effectiveness of new plan to address Mekong drought
Plan centres on drought forecasting but critics say it failed to address impact of dams and hydropower projects.
by Leonie Kijewski
4 hours ago

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - After a year of severe drought that hit the region, the inter-state agency Mekong River Commission (MRC) has laid out new measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis but experts have questioned the effectiveness of the plan.

In its 2020-2025 strategy, adopted late last month in Phnom Penh and published last week, the MRC sets out a five-point strategy, which includes drought forecasting and early warning.

The MRC works with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and is an advisory body set up to manage shared water resources of the Mekong River.

The Mekong is the world's 12th longest river, stretching 4,350km (2,703 miles) from China in the north to Vietnam in the south.

The plan, contained in an 88-page document, aims "to strengthen adaptive capacity of the Member Countries in combatting drought hazards and mitigating drought impacts through a sustainable use of water resources."

But Pianporn Deetes, a campaigner in Thailand for International Rivers, said that while the plan acknowledges some important points, such as how the drought affects the lives of millions of people, the strategy itself is focused on the wrong issues.

"The strategy they are using misses the point," she said.

One of the main issues affecting water scarcity is the impact of hydropower projects, which was barely mentioned in the report, Pianporn said.

"Instead of recognising the existing problems, governments are allowing more and more dams to be built," Pianporn said.
Disruption to the environment

Ian Baird, a University of Wisconsin researcher who studies the Mekong, said the new strategy is not far-reaching enough.

While praising the MRC's effort to collect more data, Baird said that alone is not sufficient.

"The data is only going to be worth as much as people are willing to make use of it to make decisions, and that will depend on the governments."

Dams built along the Mekong have disrupted the natural water flow of the river, and that poses risks to the whole ecological system, Baird said.

One of the consequences of the disruption is that trees are dying in Cambodia, because of excess water released from the dam at a time when the trees need less water.

The way the MRC is structured, with only government representatives and no one from civil society, its drought strategy could only go so far, Baird added.

"The countries are very much about maintaining national interest. And I don't think there's enough of a sense of long term benefit of everyone," he said.

"Everyone has projects that they want to build, everyone wants to have their own dam, and they want to have their own diversion projects. So there's not much coordination."
Full article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/ ... 11086.html

A few weeks ago I spoke to a guy who said he works for MRC. I asked him what was his job there and he said they spend weeks planning for a meeting
only to have to cancel it because someone important that was to come from far away is sick / died / getting married , so they spend many more weeks organizing a new meeting. I assumed that was part of his job so didn't ask for more info.

Conservation of species and habitats by charities, governments and individuals helps to maintain the range of biodiversity. In this instance it seems only the leaders, governments can make the difference alone to the flora and fauna of this great river and the giver of life, yes, electricity is important to the population of ones country, but without water life is dramatically effected with the unbalances to the fragile ecosystem, to the point of diversification, or until it and the surroundings possibly can't survive.
It is starting to look like past history, what may have happened all those years ago to the greatest temple in the Kingdom. Angkor was considered to be a "hydraulic city" because it had such a complicated water management system, it was then a designed system of some stability with storing, and dispersing water throughout the area. At the time, this network is believed to have been used for irrigation in order to offset and stabilise the unpredictable monsoon season and to also support the increasing population. There had been many theory's too account for the rapid decline and abandonment of Angkor, climate change, earthquakes and disease all could be relevant to be the demise of this once great place. Or was it the simple demise of its water systems, that what feed the crops and livestock, bathed and watered its population, the decline in the works to keep up with maintenance, to the most important and much needed provider of life, by the waterways of the time.
With a developing country there are, and is much to learn, but their are developed countries to learn from, and of course ones own history.

Countries along the Mekong River have been told to brace themselves for a dip in water levels between Jan 1-4 as tests at Jinghong hydroelectric power station in China's Yunnan province are expected decrease of water outflows.
Based on a notification sent by China's Ministry of Water Resources, the tests will see water outflows from the dam reduced from 1,200-1,400 cubic metres per second (m³/s) to between 800-1,000m³/s from Jan 1-3.