00:00 "Ho Ho Aquaponics" is one of the many ventures that have been started with great hopes in Cuba these days.
00:06 It's leaders to young men whose destinies were changed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:10 Our correspondent Fabiola Lopez with the story as part of our special series "Cuba in the Move."
00:16 This is a road to the Barbosa suburb west of Havana, the road that leads to Ho Ho Aquaponics,
00:25 the project of life that two young Cubans are betting on in this difficult time sea islands going through.
00:31 Their names, José Antonio and Joel, two lawyers that the pandemic made them rethink their lives.
00:37 At the beginning it was complicated because we come from humanities background, a total humanities background,
00:43 and we started to get involved in a world where we have to apply a lot of science in living beings,
00:48 because here in this filter three kinds of living beings coexist, plants, fish and bacteria.
00:55 José Antonio and Joel's bet was aquaponics, an experimental activity still emerging in Cuba,
01:02 which combines aquaculture, the production of aquatic organisms in a controlled environment,
01:07 with hydroponics, the growing of plants without soil.
01:12 Why did you opt for plants and fish? You two who started off, what have you found different in that world?
01:18 We wanted a prosperous business and the idea that came to us was this.
01:22 Why? Because well, here we have a water recycling process.
01:26 Here the water is poured only once in six months and is recirculated through the plants,
01:31 which in turn take advantage of the metabolic waste of the fish to grow and return the clean water to the fish pond.
01:38 All aquaponics exist in its infancy. The fish farming area has already been completed,
01:43 and the 6,000 square meters, which used to be just weeds, 12 pounds of 20 cubic meters each, are being built,
01:50 several of them with 500 fish. The culture houses are in the process of investment.
01:56 Psyllid substrate is used here, with metabolic waste produced by the fish,
02:01 and lettuce and lemon seeds are experimentally growing in the germination area.
02:07 They say that the future of agriculture could be aquaponics. Why?
02:11 Because the prices of fertilizers are currently increasing,
02:15 prices that Cuba cannot have access to, to all the fertilizers and pesticides needed in agriculture.
02:23 In Hojo Aquaponico everything is recycled.
02:29 The fish droppings that go from the ponds to the bio-fertilizer are dried and sold as organic fertilizer,
02:36 which is also used in the self-consumption area where these kinds of cucumbers, in high demand by the community, are harvested.
02:43 Our passion is mainly to produce food. That is the main passion.
02:50 And as a business, to be a sustainable and prosperous business over time.
02:56 Our projections and dreams are quite big. This is quite a comprehensive project,
03:02 and what we have in mind for the next five years is to become the leaders in the aquaponics market in Cuba.
03:08 It is a bit ambitious, but that's how we entrepreneurs are, ambitious.
03:14 Hojo Aquaponico was one of the more than 6,000 economic companies
03:20 with a booth at this summer's second local development fair in Havana
03:24 and one of the ferry that won a gold medal for superior quality for its projection method.
03:31 Lopez, Telesur, Havana.
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