Ending poverty is at the root of everything we do—from maternal/child health to climate-adaptive agriculture to youth and community development. Aquaponics is one of our most effective tools for achieving well-being and self-reliance. For nearly a decade, INMED has been a global pioneer in implementing aquaponics for social development and income generation for vulnerable populations.
Aquaponics is an ancient food production technique that combines fish farming with hydroponics in a closed symbiotic system. Advantages of aquaponics include crop production up to 10 times higher than traditional farming, 90% less water consumption, no fertilizers or pesticides, year-round crop production and resilience to extreme climate events.
Here’s How We Do It
Meet Our Farmers
Esther
Esther is the leader of the Pella Food Garden farming cooperative. Located in the desert of Northern Cape, South Africa, the members of this all-female farming cooperative struggled for years to feed their families and had to live on government assistance. Within 1 year of implementing an INMED AquaponicsTM system, the group increased its income 60-fold, created jobs for their impoverished community, won national awards and has added a production facility to launch a line of pickled vegetables.
Junior
Junior is among our youngest aquaponics farmers. He attends a primary school outside Johannesburg, South Africa that serves children with special needs. The aquaponics system that INMED South Africa installed at Junior’s school produces enough fresh food for students’ meals with enough left over to donate to impoverished families in the community. Our INMED AquaponicsTM system serves as a teaching tool for a variety of subjects and has been particularly effective for instructing children who do not adapt well to traditional classroom environments.
Marcus
Marcus is one of our budding farmers in Jamaica. He was a star student in our Increasing Access to Climate-smart Agriculture program to help small-scale farmers and first-time entrepreneurs launch aquaponics enterprises. This game-changing program provides technical and business training, access to financing, links to markets and ongoing technical support from INMED-trained agriculture extension agents—the entire value chain for success. Marcus recently won an economic development competition to launch his alternative agriculture enterprise.
Benicio
INMED AquaponicsTM is improving the nutrition education, food security and climate resiliency of 2,000 at-risk primary school children, families and teachers-in-training in Yarinacocha, Peru. This indigenous community is suffering the destructive effects of climate change, deforestation and overfishing, which has caused widespread malnutrition and anemia, especially among children like Benicio. At the local indigenous teacher training institute, INMED AquaponicsTM provides fresh year-round food and serves as a vital resource for student teachers, educators and researchers.
A Trusted Partner
INMED Partnerships for Children has been a Four Star Charity for 7 consecutive years. We also have a PERFECT overall score. Less than 1% of nonprofits rated by Charity Navigator achieve this distinction. Read our profile.
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