Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi NA
I enjoy your posts on the developement of your AP adventure
I also think you are much more likely to sucseed than any ap "expert" coming from a western culture to
"show you the way" to do it "properly" and ethical corect how much to charge blabla, if you where to bring any of your critics in or a profesor expert ............. ask what the fees would be and howm should cover it you or your atendees ? or maybe roz stuart or one of the others would do it at a lower charge ?

You don't portait your selfe as a expert on AP you ask and share your journey.
I wish you all well,, good luck and hope you keep sharing your ups and downs down the road

cheers

But that's the thing Soltun... he does... and on top of that.. he suggests that within a "commercial" context... that's the whole point...

Anyway.. there's no point... he will do what he is going to do regardless...

That is very sad that the people that need to be doing AP in your country will not be able to attend your workshops. I certainly was way off when I thought 1000RS would be 2 days wage for the average worker, but 5 days !!!! Only the wealthy attending then

There's no money to be made from the poor Seamonkey...

So true and even though you didnt put an apostrophe after poor, the sentence is still valid,Rupe

Actually, that is not so true because some poor people would save a weeks wage and pay for something like that in desperation that it will help them. But there is probably ongoing costs (consultation fees) that they couldnt afford if they need help later down the track

Seems to go against the whole, affordable, not only for the well to do crowd, and lean more towards the silver spoon crowd doesn't it?

I see your point Seamonkey... We are in talks with local government officials in sponsoring a future event scheduled to be on December 14th. 129 people have registered so far for it. If this happens, it would be a $1.5 (Rs. 100) per person event where we think of including all those small women entrepreneurs (kudumbasree units) participating.

We are lucky that IRTC, a govt R&D organization, has extended full support and giving us their facility free of charge to conduct the training workshop. They are also keen in the AP R&D activities and has promised to release a scientific paper soon... If this happens, there is a possibility that the new AP farmers in India would get 60-75% government subsidy as their start-up funding. I hope all goes well.

Sharing with you some more pictures - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.685925914758471.1073741829.640842599266803&type=1&l=6c2f6ed0cd

Pictures were taken at the NARDC stall at http://indexpo.co.in/

Thank you, SolTun! We greatly appreciate it and will continue to strive toward our goals.

As you suggested, we have been looking around for a mentor-kind of a person, a commercial AP expert, but could not find one yet matching to our needs and budget constraints. Like surprises hope we get one soon.

Now there's a couple of positive pieces of news...

With a facility being provided free of charge... the workshop fee can surely be reduced to basically covering the cost of refreshments...

And government startup funding would be a great thing... providing the model being funded is "commercially" viable...

With regard to the "scientific paper"... who/what data would be gathered and collated...

a Book The Guide to The Future of Farming written by VK Narayanan

Would love to see what's in that book ........

i think people on this forum forget that poor people over there can barely afford to eat..let alone buy tanks and run pumps and have a setup...


you cant compare it to here were everyone is well off...over there difference between an average wage and poor people may be 10x or more...here it is like 0.5 times.


I personally think what he is doing is good regardless of the cost. Good work and keep it up. Education is best and starting with people that can actually afford to have a setup going is good.


If you teach more wealthy people maybe they will start their own setups. The poorer folk can work there and then learn themselves. So they are educating and providing jobs.


Someone who might not even have electricity isnt going to care much for AP correct?

I think the point that concerns most people is that NA still has a lot to learn about aquaponics himself, as is evident by the fact that his systems are so new and some of the answers he gives here on the forum. Giving advice is a great thing, giving poor and/or wrong advice can be detrimental and even harmful.

Joel, I value your feedback. Much appreciated. Agreed, a lot of work to do... improvements to be made and a long long way to go in this AP journey.

From several years of ornamental aquarium fish and herbs farming with a desire to help others to being a self-proclaimed Aquaponics Futurist means I work on bringing integrated Aquaponics technologies of farming fish & plants suitable to a rural environment. I have a demo AP site... a 3-month old working system... call me a full time AP farmer. I had been doing teaching/learning for over 23 years and have been doing AP research for over an year before the start-up of own site. I always believe we can learn something from everyone, and it might be just what not to believe or do.