Progress 07/01/21 to 02/28/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Hawaii Fish Company (HFC)'s research and planned commercial product is designed specifically for domestic aquaponic growers, with potential crossover to hydroponic growers. These technologies use a small fraction of the land and water resources required by traditional farming practices, require no soil, use little or no petroleum-based synthetic fertilizers, and can be built in rural and urban environments, close to local markets. As a result, HFC's work will also impact rural and urban communities by improving their access to local, year-round production of nutritious vegetables, fruits, and fish in a sustainable, cost-effective manner. Changes/Problems:HFC faced two significant obstacles during Phase I that have impeded the company's ability to progress on schedule with its work plan. First, HFC has been impacted by the unprecedented global supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. Delays in the stocking of normally available products and extended shipping times has delayed HFC's progress on objectives that required these components for its research trials. Additionally, as HFC's work plan is an iterative process with initial tests informing the selection of components for subsequent tests, HFC was unable to move forward with subsequent objectives until these components arrived. Second, HFC spent significant time resolving administrative issues with the proper registration and authentication of its grant-related accounts due to technical issues, which took 6 months to fully resolve. As a result of these delays, HFC was granted a No-Cost Extension award to complete Phase I by February 28, 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Modern aquaponics is a relatively young farming production method with great opportunity for continued development and improvement. HFC's overall goal with its Phase I research and development is to improve on the design of the floating rafts currently used in deepwater aquaponic systems to enhance plant growth and improve overall farm profitability. This will in turn improve both rural and urban communities' access to local, nutritious food. HFC tested a variety of innovations in raft design across a variety of leafy greens in a series of replicated experimental growth trials. At the end of each trial's growing period, the leafy greens were harvested and weighed to quantify differences in growth and analyzed to identify any statistically significant differences that resulted from HFC's innovations. The planned experiments are iterations from which the research team extracts the best results before moving to the next experiment. The exact nature and results of these trials is proprietary information. HFC's final experiment combined the top-performing design innovations into a preliminary prototype to compare against a typical commercial raft. The results showed a statistically significant increase in plant growth between HFC's research prototype and the control. HFC also tested the effectiveness of sanitization on HFC's research prototype and the control and found significantly lower measurements of organic matter on HFC's research prototype surface compared to the control before and after sanitizing. Phase I was a proof-of-concept of HFC's design innovations to lay the technical foundation for the proposed Phase II project to develop a commercial-ready prototype. HFC completed its cost and commercial feasibility evaluations and prepared a Commercialization Plan with its TABA provider, which was included in HFC's Phase II application.

Publications

Progress 07/01/21 to 06/30/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Hawaii Fish Company (HFC)'s research and planned commercial product is designed specifically for domestic aquaponic growers, with potential crossover to hydroponic growers. These technologies use a small fraction of the land and water resources required by traditional farming practices, require no soil, use little or no petroleum-based synthetic fertilizers, and can be built in rural and urban environments, close to local markets. As a result, HFC's work will also impact rural and urban communities by improving their access to local, year-round production of nutritious vegetables, fruits, and fish in a sustainable, cost-effective manner. Changes/Problems:HFC has faced two significant obstacles during Phase I that have impeded the company's ability to progress on schedule with its work plan. First, HFC has been impacted by the unprecedented global supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. Delays in the stocking of normally available products and extended shipping times has delayed HFC's progress on objectives that required these components for its research trials. Additionally, as HFC's work plan is an iterative process with initial tests informing the selection of components for subsequent tests, HFC was unable to move forward with subsequent objectives until these components arrived. Second, HFC spent significant time resolving administrative issues with the proper registration and authentication of its grant-related accounts due to technical issues, which took 6 months to fully resolve. As a result of these delays, HFC was granted a No-Cost Extension award to complete Phase I by February 28, 2023 What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?HFC will continue to conduct its proposed experimental trials to determine the design for its preliminary prototype raft and prepare a commercialization plan.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Aquaponics can provide more crop production in less space year-round and lead to less adverse environmental impacts than traditional agriculture. Increasing fish consumption and demand for organic produce, improvement in urban farming methods, growing reduction in arable land areas, and changing climate conditions are major drivers in the growth of the aquaponics market. However, modern aquaponics is a relatively young farming production method with great opportunity for continued development and improvement. HFC's work will improve on the design of the floating rafts currently used in deepwater aquaponic systems to enhance plant growth and improve overall farm profitability. This will in turn improve both rural and urban communities' access to local, nutritious food. HFC is conducting a series of experimental trialsin order to test the impact of its innovations. The exact nature and results of these trials is proprietary information. HFC has tested its innovations across a variety of leafy greens. At the end of the growing period, the leafy greens are harvested and weighed to quantify differences in growth and analyzed to identify any statistically significant differences that resulted from HFC's innovations. The planned experiments are iterations from which the research team extracts the best results before moving to the next experiment. A final experiment will test a preliminary prototype of HFC's manufactured raft. At present, HFC has successfully tested two of its innovations in the winter season, and will be commencing with its summer trials. HFC also completed the construction of a second aquaponic production system which will be utilized in its experimental trials.

Publications