Growing Papaya Using Aquaculture Effluent in an Automated Drip Irrigation System

David Crisostomo, a Guam farmer, will utilize his Farmer/Rancher Grant to direct fish water effluent to papaya, allocating each drop of water to two valuable crops, dubbed “two crops for every drop.” The water from two tilapia ponds will pass through a number of tilapia tanks to settle out large particulates and then down a drip irrigation system to the papaya, recycling both the nutrients and water. This project will likely reduce the pesticide load used on papaya because of the disease prevention method of competitive exclusion, or introducing beneficial microorganisms from the effluent that prevent bacterial diseases, such as papaya ring spot virus, from populating. This sustainable system reduces the costs and impacts from fertilizer and pesticide use, while conserving water. Information from the project will be shared at an on-site farm field day and in a published technical report.