Providing Aquaponics Facility to the Kali Code Area of Yogyakarta to Support Food Availability
for the Local Community
Ryan Anugrah Putra a,1,*, Akhlisa Nadiantya Aji Nugroho a,2 ,Habib Luthfi Ash Shiddiqie a,3, Hafidh Naufal Ahmad a,4 ,Himmah Mahmudah b,5
a Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jalan Grafika No. 2, 55281 Yogyakarta, Indonesia
bStudy Program Extension and Development Communication, The Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl.
Teknika Utara, Pogung, Sinduadi, Mlati, Sleman, 55284 Yogyakarta, Indonesia
1[email protected]*; 2[email protected]; 3[email protected];
4[email protected]; 5[email protected]
* corresponding author
I. Introduction
Aquaponics is a system that combines fish farming (aquaculture) with recirculating water and plants/vegetables (hydroponics) [1]–[4]. The aquaculture system itself plays an important role in providing a food source, and production continues to increase each year [5]–[7]. In 2018, this system accounted for 46% of the total world fish production [8]. Indonesia is the world’s second largest producer of aquaculture products, with a total production from land-based aquaculture of 5.5 million tons in 2018 [9]. Indonesia's aquaculture production is estimated to increase to 10-15 million tons by 2030 [9]. Aquaculture could also be one of the solutions to overcome the decline marine fish stocks [10].
Another important aspect of aquaculture is that aquaculture products can be a source of animal protein for low-income communities so that it is expected to reduce cases malnutrition, which is still prevalent in developing countries [11], [12]. According to the 2018 RISKESDAS National Report by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, 3.8% of children under the age of 2 in are severely malnourished in Indonesia, 11.4% are undernutrition while 3.9% of children under the age of 5 experience severe malnutrition and 13.8% experience undernutrition [13]. This report also shows
ARTICLE INFO A B S T R A C T
Article history:
Accepted
The community service program in the form of providing aquaponics facilities in the Kali Code area of Yogyakarta was implemented to support food availability in the community during the COVID 19 pandemic. This aquaponics facility is also expected to contribute to the development of the Kali Code region as an ecotourism area and an example of sustainable riverbank management. The water source used for the facility comes from the outlet of a wastewater treatment system that treats wastewater from several food stalls around the site. This is very beneficial in terms of conserving clean water resources as this aquaponics facility does not require a separate clean water supply.
Several phases carried out in this program include the design, manufacture, and installation of aquaponics facilities. This program is also a means for students to explore ideas and use the skills they acquire during their studies to solve problems faced by the community. An example of how the program contributes to feeding the community, produced fish and vegetable are being used to support the consumption of the river school’s closing event at that location.
Copyright © 2022 Politeknik Aceh Selatan.
All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Aquaponic Kali Code Community Service Food Availability Riverbank Management
that in the Province of D.I. Yogyakarta, 1.4% of children under the age of 2 experienced severe malnutrition and 9.9% experienced undernutrition, while for children under the age of 5, 2.5% of them experienced severe malnutrition and 13.0% experienced undernutrition [13].
Aquaponics systems combine the benefits of aquaculture and hydroponics, using fish feed waste and fish manure as a source of nutrients for plant/vegetable growth rather than simply throwing them away [14]–[16]. Leftover feed and fish manure become valuable products rather than mere waste [2]. Aquaponics is said to have the potential to be a solution for achieving more environmentally friendly fish farming than conventional aquaculture systems [17]–[19]. Aquaponics is considered to have high water utilization efficiency due to the RAS (recirculating aquaculture system) that uses 90-99% less water compared to traditional aquaculture systems such as running tracks and ponds [20].
Considering the above factors, an aquaponics facility was installed in the Kali Code area at Kemantren Jetis, Cokrodiningratan, Yogyakarta through a community service program financed by Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FT-UGM). This service program was implemented in cooperation with Lembaga Pemerti Kali Code Yogyakarta. Kali Code is one of several major rivers that cross the city of Yogyakarta and could be developed as an ecotourism area [21]. The area selected to provide aquaponics facility in this service program is the area along the Kali Code close to a small sewage treatment facility designed to treat waste water, such as dishwashing water, from several food stalls around the riverbank. Water from the water treatment facility is sent to the aquaponics system before being sent to the Kali Code. Therefore, no separate fresh water supply for the aquaponics system is required. It is also expected that aquaponics facility will benefit if nutrients are still present in the exit water of the wastewater treatment system.
Fig. 1. Location of the installed aquaponic facility in the Kali Code area
II. Method
Prior to the design process, information on the aquaponics device and its operating system was gathered by reviewing the literature and viewing fabrication tutorials already available on the web. To make the design process more targeted, a field visit. The discussions with the local partner were held during the visit. Important information obtained during the visit includes location description, the water quality discharged from the wastewater treatment facility, size of space available for aquaponics installation, and availability of power source. Next, the design process was carried out (see Fig. 2).
This process encourages the student to come up with creative ideas and illustrate those design ideas using a CAD (Computer Aided Design) software they learned on campus. Fig. 2 (b) is an example of
a design idea that is expressed in the form of a CAD drawing. Discussion among members of the community services team during the design stage is beneficial for students as they learn how to discuss, and convey ideas or opinions, analyze the advantages and disadvantages of a design idea, and learn to accept if the decisions taken by the team differ from their opinions.
Fig. 2. Aquaponic facility design process
The next stage is the manufacturing process where the students work on the aquaponics facility begin with the appropriate equipment. An IBC tank (Intermediate Bulk Container) with a capacity of 1000 liters was chosen as the basic material for the aquaponics system. The tank is cut into two parts, one part will be used for fish farming and the other part will be used for vegetable cultivation.
Pipework and construction of a water drainage system from the vegetable section to the fish pond are also carried out at this stage. At this stage a simple test is also carried out to test whether the drainage system is functioning properly. From this test, it is known that the drainage system that regulates the flow of water from the vegetable cultivation section to the fish pond has been functioning properly.
Fig. 3. The manufacturing process
The facility installation process begins after all parts of the aquaponics facility are brought to the service program location. Due to the location of the river bank, the road is narrow so it cannot be accessed by vehicle, so equipment can only be delivered by vehicle to the nearest distance. After that the service team together with the surrounding community helped to bring all the equipment parts to the location on foot (see Fig.4). The installation of one-by-one parts of the aquaponics facility is
carried out, starting with placing tanks for fish cultivation. The installation continued with the installation of several wooden blocks above the fish tank which served to hold the vegetable cultivation container. The next step is to place the vegetable cultivation container on a wooden block and then fill it with a layer of palm fiber, wood charcoal, sand and gravel which functions as a planting medium as well as filtration. The next step is to install the piping system and fill the water into the fish tank. After the installation process is complete, the kale seeds are sown in vegetable cultivation containers for initial testing whether the vegetables can grow on the growing media used. In its development, the water spinach seeds that were sown in the vegetable cultivation container in the aquaponics facility turned out to be able to grow well as shown in Fig. 5. In this figure, it can be seen how the stages of seed growth start from shoot growth to leaf growth.
Fig. 4. The installation of the aquaponic facility
Fig. 5. Water spinach grows in the aquaponic facility
III. Results and Discussion
After testing the growth process of this water spinach seed can run well, the next step is to fill the fish culture tank with several fish. During the process of filling fish into the aquaponics facility, the time coincided with the river school activity for children living around the riverbank, which is a program that has been routinely carried out by the local community to introduce the river environment
to school-age children. The atmosphere of the activity can be seen in Fig. 6. In connection with this activity, this aquaponics facility is also a means of introducing the community to the community and a learning platform for children to benefit from and its existence in their environment. The community and children then became enthusiastic to be directly involved in the process of filling fish into this aquaponics equipment so that the atmosphere became more exciting and livelier because the community and their respective children looked very excited to be able to take part in the process, even at the same time being able to become a part of the process. children's arena to play fish. Their excitement can be seen in Fig. 7.
Fig. 6. The atmosphere of river school activities for the children of residents around the Kali Code
Fig. 7. Filling fish into the aquaponics facility by involving the Kali Code river school’s students In addition to being an introduction to aquaponics for the community and children living around the river, this service through the provision of aquaponics facility has a real contribution in providing and increasing the knowledge of the community and children about the materials and equipment used in aquaponics design as well as its function. In addition, it can also increase their knowledge about the benefits of aquaponics as an alternative and strategy in helping to provide food for their daily vegetable
and animal protein needs. The water spinach and fish harvests from the aquaponics facilities can support and contribute in helping the provision of food for children in their river school activities.
With the provision of aquaponics facilities, it is hoped that this can provide an example to assist in the provision of food, both fulfilling the needs of vegetables and protein sources for the surrounding community who may be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, with this small-scale facility, they cannot contribute greatly in quantity to the provision of food. However, it can be demonstrated that this method of cultivation can provide an alternative for the community to meet food needs. The hope of this service program is that the aquaponic system can continue to be developed, scaled up or the number of facilities increased so that it can further contribute to the fulfillment of food for the community around Kali Code Yogyakarta. Another hope with the development of this aquaponics system is the development of the area around Kali Code as an ecotourism area.
The existence of a community service program in the form of providing aquaponic equipment can also be a means for the community to foster a sense of cooperation and responsibility between them. This is illustrated not only during the installation of equipment but also after the service program by being responsible for maintaining this aquaponics facility. Communities with care routinely feed fish and care for water spinach cultivation in the aquaponics facility. The benefits of this community service program are not only felt by the community around the location, but also the community service team from FT-UGM. The students who are members of the team and accompanied by the lecturer try to apply the knowledge they have gained at the university to help provide solutions to the problems faced by the community around Kali Code, especially related to waste water treatment and food supply.
IV. Conclusion
The FT-UGM community service program with the title "Provision of aquaponic fish and vegetable cultivation equipment as an effort to reduce the economic impact of COVID 19 at the household scale in the D.I. region. Yogyakarta” has been carried out in collaboration with Lembaga Pemerti Kali Code Yogyakarta. This aquaponics facility, which was installed on the banks of the Kali Code, Kemantren Jetis, Cokrodiningratan Village, Yogyakarta, has proven to be able to contribute to the provision of food, although on a small scale, as demonstrated using harvesting vegetables and fish for the consumption of river school events held in the area. The stages in this service include the design, manufacture, and installation of aquaponic equipment. Apart from being an example for providing food for the surrounding community, this aquaponics facility is also expected to be an example of sustainable riverbank area management efforts because there is no need for a separate clean water source but instead uses water from wastewater treatment facilities that manage wastewater from several food stalls around. location. This service program is also a means for students to be creative, explore creative and innovative ideas, discuss, and use the knowledge they have gained at university to help provide solutions to problems faced by the community, in this case the community around Kali Code Yogyakarta.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank the Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University for providing funding through a collaborative community service program grant from the Faculty of Engineering. The author also expresses his gratitude to Totok Pratopo as the chairman of the Lembaga Pemerti Kali Code Yogyakarta for his cooperation as a partner in this community service program.
References
[1] V. Ondruška, B. S. How, M. Netolický, V. Máša, and S. Y. Teng, “Resource optimisation in aquaponics facility via process monitoring and graph-theoretical approach,” Carbon Resour. Convers., Apr. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.crcon.2022.04.003.
[2] K. Roy, L. Kajgrova, and J. Mraz, “TILAFeed: A bio-based inventory for circular nutrients management and achieving bioeconomy in future aquaponics,” New Biotechnol., vol. 70, pp. 9–18, Sep. 2022, doi:
10.1016/j.nbt.2022.04.002.
[3] A. Spradlin and S. Saha, “Saline aquaponics: A review of challenges, opportunities, components, and system design,” Aquaculture, vol. 555, p. 738173, Jun. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2022.738173.
[4] S. Carlos-Hernández and L. Díaz-Jiménez, “Strategy based on life cycle assessment for telemetric monitoring of an aquaponics system,” Ind. Crops Prod., vol. 185, p. 115171, Oct. 2022, doi:
10.1016/j.indcrop.2022.115171.
[5] T. Gjedrem, N. Robinson, and M. Rye, “The importance of selective breeding in aquaculture to meet future demands for animal protein: A review,” Aquaculture, vol. 350–353, pp. 117–129, Jun. 2012, doi:
10.1016/j.aquaculture.2012.04.008.
[6] P. J. G. Henriksson et al., “Indonesian aquaculture futures – Evaluating environmental and socioeconomic potentials and limitations,” J. Clean. Prod., vol. 162, pp. 1482–1490, Sep. 2017, doi:
10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.133.
[7] N. Tran et al., “Indonesian aquaculture futures: An analysis of fish supply and demand in Indonesia to 2030 and role of aquaculture using the AsiaFish model,” Mar. Policy, vol. 79, pp. 25–32, May 2017, doi:
10.1016/j.marpol.2017.02.002.
[8] W. Wee et al., “The effects of mixed prebiotics in aquaculture: A review,” Aquac. Fish., Mar. 2022, doi:
10.1016/j.aaf.2022.02.005.
[9] B. M. Inderaja, N. B. Tarigan, M. C. J. Verdegem, and K. J. Keesman, “Observability-based sensor selection in fish ponds: Application to pond aquaculture in Indonesia,” Aquac. Eng., vol. 98, p. 102258, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.aquaeng.2022.102258.
[10] K. Yue and Y. Shen, “An overview of disruptive technologies for aquaculture,” Aquac. Fish., vol. 7, no.
2, pp. 111–120, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.aaf.2021.04.009.
[11] T. Garlock et al., “Aquaculture: The missing contributor in the food security agenda,” Glob. Food Secur., vol. 32, p. 100620, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100620.
[12] A. Shepon et al., “Exploring sustainable aquaculture development using a nutrition-sensitive approach,”
Glob. Environ. Change, vol. 69, p. 102285, Jul. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102285.
[13] BALITBANGKES, “Laporan Nasional RISKESDAS 2018,” Lembaga Penerbit Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Kesehatan, Jakarta, 2019.
[14] J. Colt and K. Semmens, “Computation of feed conversion ratio (FCRplant) and plant-fish mass ratio (PFRM) for aquaponic systems,” Aquac. Eng., vol. 98, p. 102260, Aug. 2022, doi:
10.1016/j.aquaeng.2022.102260.
[15] N. Zappernick et al., “Techno-economic analysis of a recirculating tilapia-lettuce aquaponics system,” J.
Clean. Prod., vol. 365, p. 132753, Sep. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132753.
[16] J. Zhang, G. Jia, M. Wang, S. Cao, and S. G. Mkumbuzi, “Hydrodynamics of recirculating aquaculture tanks with different spatial utilization,” Aquac. Eng., vol. 96, p. 102217, Feb. 2022, doi:
10.1016/j.aquaeng.2021.102217.
[17] B. Kralik, F. Weisstein, J. Meyer, K. Neves, D. Anderson, and J. Kershaw, “From water to table: A multidisciplinary approach comparing fish from aquaponics with traditional production methods,”
Aquaculture, vol. 552, p. 737953, Apr. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2022.737953.
[18] L. H. David et al., “Sustainability of urban aquaponics farms: An emergy point of view,” J. Clean. Prod., vol. 331, p. 129896, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129896.
[19] F. Bordignon, E. Sturaro, A. Trocino, M. Birolo, G. Xiccato, and M. Berton, “Comparative life cycle assessment of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) farming at two stocking densities in a low-tech aquaponic system,” Aquaculture, vol. 556, p. 738264, Jul. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2022.738264.
[20] B. Yep and Y. Zheng, “Aquaponic trends and challenges – A review,” J. Clean. Prod., vol. 228, pp. 1586–
1599, Aug. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.290.
[21] W. Brontowiyono, R. Lupiyanto, and D. Wijaya, “Pengelolaan Kawasan Sungai Code Berbasis Masyarakat,” J. Sains Teknol. Lingkung., vol. 2, no. 1, Art. no. 1, 2010, doi: 10.20885/jstl.vol2.iss1.art2.
