Increasing revenue and sustainable practices: Improving crop yield, soil health, and diversity by combining aquaculture and vegetable production

View the project final report

Commodities

• Vegetables: greens (leafy)
• Animals: fish

Practices

• Animal Production: aquaculture
• Production Systems: organic agriculture
• Soil Management: soil quality/health

There is an increasing interest in sustainable, small scale, diversified food production in our region and a strong desire for fresh, local produce.  Forestdale Farm has seen an increasing demand for local produce from our community and local restaurants over the years. Despite this demand, there remain few farms and producers in our region. Land is limited and expensive with much of the area consisting of rocky and clay soils. Because the land is not historically agricultural land, often the soil conditions are poor, requiring a lot of labor and inputs to make it suitable for crop production. This can be cost prohibitive for new or marginalized growers. Furthermore, water resources are becoming increasingly scarce.  Wells are very expensive in these areas and many growers utilize small ponds or other water catchment for irrigation purposes.  We established a sustainable aquaculture system in one of our ponds and compared this to another catchment system without aquaculture.  We irigated identical fields from each treatment and looked at how aquaculture can improve crop yields and soil health.  In addition, fish production can serve as another commodity for small farms increasing profits while lowering costly inputs like organic fertilizers. By pairing small scale aquaculture with agriculture, we provided a much-needed example of how small farmers can overcome obstacles in regions like ours and provide sustainable, healthy produce for communities. Our results were shared with the community, schools, and producers through organized farm tours, workshops, and educational pamphlets. 

We established a sustainable aquaculture system in a small irrigation catchment pond and compared this to conventional watering from catchment tanks without aquaculture. We planted and irrigated identical study areas on the farm for each treatment to look at how aquaculture can improve crop yields and soil health.  In addition, we showed how fish production can serve as another commodity for small farms, increasing profits while lowering costly inputs like organic fertilizers. Our results were shared with the community, schools, and producers through organized farm tours, workshops, and educational pamphlets.