Green Thumb - 10
Green Thumb - 10
Transcript
00:00 Hydroponics, a Latin word which translates to working water, evidence of which can be
00:10 found beneath this shade house in Reform Village.
00:14 Here Alexis Jones, owner of Aria Ponics Ltd and his team have been configuring concepts
00:19 to cater to customers' needs for the last five years.
00:23 We have our elevated gutter system, our elevated pipe system.
00:28 Behind me here is our elevated grow bed system.
00:32 What you will see up in those fabric bags is our grow bag system.
00:37 And the concrete blocks that we have here is our raised beds and pretty much that covers
00:42 any type of crop you can do.
00:45 Known as the art of gardening without soil, a glance at Jones' setup might leave one
00:50 stumped.
00:51 This is coconut fiber and it's also mixed with something called perlite.
00:57 So coconut fiber, unfortunately now we import this medium from India.
01:02 But I'm pretty sure we could develop this type of product in our country as well as
01:06 neighboring countries like let's say Guyana where we do have a lot of coconut trees where
01:12 we can make this material from.
01:14 What began as a hobby for the former energy sector employee has since mushroomed beyond
01:18 our borders.
01:20 We have been in Guyana to do training for hydroponics.
01:23 We have systems running in St. Vincent, in Grenada, Antigua.
01:28 We reached far as Bahamas to install hydroponics systems across there.
01:33 But despite current success, Jones does not believe hydroponics alone is the future for
01:38 agriculture.
01:39 Realistically, hydroponics is still dependent on a lot of import.
01:46 This is just filling a gap.
01:49 It will fill short term the need for crops.
01:52 It can free up land space for other crops to grow that may be better in land than in
01:58 hydroponics.
01:59 Bigger fruit trees, rooting crops.
02:02 For Jones, the integration of hydroponics into all other systems of farming is key to
02:07 this country's food sovereignty.
02:09 Jesse Ramdeo, CNC3 News.
02:20 (upbeat music)