Cambodia
Dongkor Project
About the Project
This project has been established via a partnership with two Cambodian Families and “Together We Can Grow” to create the first, large-scale Commercial Aquaponics Farm in Cambodia. The project is located in one of the outer districts in Phnom Penh.
All parties are invested in showcasing an Alternative farming method from other traditional Cambodian farming practices.
All parties understand the importance of showcasing a sustainable, eco-friendly bio-diverse farming method to the Cambodian people and how this method of farming grows high-quality foods and provides an ongoing source of income to support their families that are not reliant on the seasons.
Objective of this Project
To demonstrate the design and operation capacity of a “Together We Can Grow” Commercial Aquaponics System and community farming concept.
The project will show that Commercial Aquaponics System can not only be profitable but can be built and operated with a simplistic and functional methodology. This makes Commercial aquaponics more affordable and manageable to the average person.
With the correct training, this Commercial Aquaponic system will give the capacity for anyone to manage and operate in conjunction with “Together We Can Grow”.
This project will become the training and development area for the Cambodian (Khmer) people to learn alternative farming practices not just with Aquaponics, but also in our unique eco-farming system that includes alternative food production, self-sustainable practices, and recycling practices.
“Together We Can Grow” is a Social Enterprise base company and this project will give us the capacity to generate funds to help other organizations (local NOGs) without a source of funding, to be able to create a self-funding method by owning their own Commercial Aquaponics System.
The Project Build
This project has started with a small system that will ensure that the design that we intend to use for the rest of the commercial systems will function and operate as expected.
This allows us to fine-tune the system as well as test the capacity of how far we can push the boundaries of conventional Aquaponics thinking.
The Dongkor Project will be built in 3 stages; the first of which commenced in August 2022.
This stage is called the R&D system, which comprises a 24m Long x 10m wide grow house and beside/connecting to that will be a 13m long x 15m wide Fish house.
We are starting off by growing three species of open lettuces and Tilapia Fish.
The production capacity for this system will be;
Approximate 15,500 Kg of fish and 6100 kg of Lettuce per 12 months of production
The estimated revenue of this production could be in the region of $43,000 USD per 12 month
After a year of production, this system will revert to a Research & Development as well as our training system where we will test different varieties of Vegetables and fish species to find out their capacity to be used in the Commercial Units.
The project should reach its completion in the third year after commencement or before. Due to the land size, the project will reach its building capacity of 1 x R&D system/training area and 3 x Commercial System each being 30m wide x 45m Long.
These three systems will have an estimated production capacity of;
Approximate 154,440 Kg of fish and 67,000 kg of Lettuce per 12 months of production
The estimated revenue of this production could be in the region of $443,880 USD per 12 months.
Cambodia
Dongkor Project Pictures
STAGE 1
This stage require us to remove the old hydroponics system out and prepare the 10m wide x 24m long green house to have the 5 x 23m long Media grow beds installed.
STAGE 2
We normally would put everything under one roof but because the grow beds have been installed in a 10m x 24m Green house, we have are going to build the fish house 2m away form the grow beds in a 15m x 15m dark cover roof fish house with no walls.
With Fish house will contain 1 x40,000, 1 x 20,000 litre and 1 x 5,000 fish tanks .
Please note: That due to me being out of Cambodia this build is a little unorthodoxy because its prepping for my arrive at this stage
