For five engineering friends in Bengaluru, weekends are about overseeing their homegrown system on the terrace. Pruthvi Ravindra, Vijayaselvan Jayakar, Avinash Mohandas, James Sunny, and Aravind Kalavara, have known each other for the last six years. They eagerly wait for the weekend so that they can witness the “magic” of growing food from fish waste.
From tomatoes, beans, ginger, bitter gourd, green chilies, green capsicum to exotic greens like basil, green lettuce, red lettuce, and celery, the engineers get enough organic yield from two systems installed on Vijayaselvan’s terrace for their respective families. Apart from this, the five also have smaller systems on their balconies.
The sustainable part?
Food growth is 25 percent faster and is done without the use of soil and chemicals. Since water is recycled, the system uses 75 percent less water compared to the amount used in traditional soil-based gardening.
How it all started
Their shared passion for growing their food led to their aquaponic journey in 2018. In fact, it was their love for gardening that made them friends from colleagues. They started bonding over plant varieties and different gardening methods. The discussions proved fruitful as they exchanged gardening tips over lunch or coffee breaks.
“In 2018, we stumbled upon an alternative farming method called aquaponics. This was also the same time when Bengaluru witnessed a severe water crisis. It made us realize that our pots were consuming a lot of water, especially in summers. So, to save water, we turned towards aquaponics,” Pruthvi shares.
Read more at The Better India (Gopi Karelia)