Novel Manufactured Aquaponic/Hydroponic Raft Design to Address Food Safety Deficiencies and Plant Growth Opportunities

Page 1 of 2 USDA-NIFA-SBIR-009642 8.7 Aquaculture Hawaii Fish Company Inc.Aquaponics is a rapidly emerging form of agriculture poised to provide farmers a highly sustainableand profitable means of producing locally-grown nutritious food. The majority of commercialaquaponics farmers utilize deep-water culture (DWC) systems with floating rafts and usuallyfabricate their own rafts from construction-grade insulation boards. However these "homemade"rafts pose a variety of food safety and durability problems. To a lesser extent aquaponic growersalso utilize a limited selection of manufactured hydroponic rafts but these rafts do not offeraquaponic farmers' design preferences for organic-compliant growing media and are notmanufactured domestically.Hawaii Fish Company Inc. (HFC) will pioneer a U.S.-manufactured raft designed specifically fordomestic aquaponic growers. HFC's durable and cost-effective rafts will comply with evolvingfederal food safety standards and incorporate novel design elements that will optimize plant growthand raft durability sanitation and handling. HFC's Phase I research tested the effect of multipledesign features on plant growth and sanitation across a range of common aquaponic crops at HFC'saquaponic facility using readily available materials. HFC's Phase II objectives are to fabricate itscustom designs with established manufacturers and to conduct comparative field tests on theseresearch prototypes at seven existing aquaponic operations in addition to continued testing at HFCin order to assess HFC's designs in real world conditions. Results from these field tests as well ascontinued manufacturing and cost assessments will enable HFC to advance its aquaponic raftdesigns to be commercial-ready.The company's manufactured aquaponics raft products will contribute to agricultural manufacturedproducts and manufacturing technologies as well as provide farmers with a cost-effectivealternative to homemade rafts and imported hydroponic rafts. This will in turn support thecontinuing growth of the domestic aquaponics industry and increase the nation's nutritious localfood production and food security.