BLUEGRASS: healthy food in a sustainable way with aquaponics

In KZ Agraria Koper, at Purissima site, a pilot plant that uses aquaponics to grow vegetables and farm fish with low environmental burdens.

Producing healthy food in a sustainable way, this is one of the main objectives of the BLUEGRASS Project, promoted by the Consortium made by Cà Foscari University (Venice- Italy), Ljubljana University (Slovenia), UTI Noncello (Italy), Shoreline (Trieste-Italy), KZ Agraria (Koper-Slovenia) as main partners and Agroittica Friulana (Porcia Italy) and WWF Oasis of Valle Averto (Itay) as associated partners, financed by the Interreg V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020 cooperation Programme.

On November 12th, in KZ Agraria Koper-Purissima, there will be the Opening Ceremony for one of the 2 pilot systems (the second is installed in Porcia, at Agroittica Friulana site). It will farm fresh water fish species like European Perch and trout using the aquaponics technique.

This integrated farming technique allows to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture and fish farming because it’s made using no soil, no pesticides nor fertilizers; it recirculates the water in a closed system, avoiding high water consumption (saving up to the 90% compared to traditional techniques), it can be done in little space since fish ad greens can be grown in the same greenhouse, it solves the problem of the highly organic-nutrient rich waste waters coming from fish farming (normally discharged in superficial waters such as rivers) reusing it to feed the plants.

Fish and greens species and varieties have been selected analysing the results of a broad Market Analysis conducted both in Italy and Slovenia using personal interviews and questionnaires aimed at understanding buying habits and preferences of the consumers.

The project aims at developing aquaponics as a productive, environmentally friendly new method to grow food, creating a new relationship between economy and territory offering also new working opportunities. The project, coordinated by the Department of Environmental Sciences of the University of Venice Ca' Foscari, was endorsed by KZ-Agaria in order to develop new opportunities of growth and work in the territory.