Aquaculture is currently the fastest growing food production systems globally, complementing and even replacing traditional fisheries to fulfil the annual per capita fish demand that has increased ten times in the past 2 decades. FAO foresees 33% increase of fish consumption by 2030 in Latin America and Caribbean. The intensive production systems are challenged by environmental, economic and social concerns, and therefore it is essential that unsustainable practices are avoided.

Innovations are mainly developed for large producers and hardly reach small medium farmers due to limitations in investments, though they represent 96% of fish farmers globally, making them less competitive and likely to comply with environmental regulations and prone to economic losses due to severe extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change.

In this context, Bioazul will co-develop together with ASTRUCEL, an association of 28 small and medium producers located in the La Cecilia village (Cauca Valley, Colombia), an affordable water filtration system for the removal of solid waste in the fish ponds, and tailor-made for inland small to medium sized rainbow trout farmers operating in open flow systems continuously.

AquaSure® system will be the result of the project which aims to demonstrate a small-scale proof of concept unit, and to finally deliver a system that solves the filtration needs of small-medium farmers.

AquaSure® is conceptually based on Filtration Drums, and will be modular to reduce initial CAPEX, linking the system with production capacity, and reduce OPEX by working in a self-adaptative mode. It will allow farmers acquiring the technology in line with their investment capacity and production requirements.