Aquaponics unit gets off the ground in Ludhiana vet varsity
Was inaugurated by Sanjay Dhotre, Union minster of state for education, communication and electronics and IT
Sanjay Dhotre Union minster of state for education, communication and electronics and IT, on Wednesday virtually inaugurated an ‘Aquaponics vertical farming system’ developed at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU).

The system was established by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, under the collaborative project funded by ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITY), GOI.
Dhotre emphasised on the need to modernise food production sectors to double farmers’ income and enhance climate change resilience among the farming community.
He said that aquaponics is a promising technology for organic farming and there is a need to publicise such technologies for the wellbeing of the environment and human.
Inderjeet Singh, vice-chancellor of GADVASU, said that aquaponics involves synergistic combination of aquaculture and hydroponics to promote vertical farming with enhanced nutrient utilisation efficiency through recycling of water between the two components to produce fish and vegetables together.
He added that it offers potential future solution to global warming, with only 10-12% water and land requirement compared to traditional fish and vegetable farming systems, fulfilling the concept of ‘More crop per drop’.
The V-C said that the facility will help GADVASU take up required R&D for its optimised utilisation under climatic conditions of the state, especially for stakeholders with small land holdings.
In the key note address, Hemant Darbari, DG, C-DAC, said that the automated aquaponic system will serve as an excellent R&D and demonstration provision for skill development in aspiring stakeholders of the region to produce more food from less land.
Jyoti Arora, special secretary, MEITY, spoke on making the facility sustainable through innovative techniques to attract more youth into technology-driven agriculture sector.
The project in charge, Jaspal Singh, joint director, C-DAC, and his team implemented the project at GADVASU with Meera D Ansal, dean, college of fisheries and Kulbir Singh, principle olericulturist, PAU, under the leadership of JPS Gill, director research, GADVASU.