Aquacultural Engineering 6 (1987) 171-182

Initial Feasibility of Integrated Aquaculture on Lava Soils in Hawaii

B a r r y A. C o s t a - P i e r c e * Integrated Aquaculture Inc., PO Box 90835, Honolulu, Hawaii 96835, USA

ABSTRA CT The wastewater from a 0"10 ha pond (2"2 m deep) containing a polyculture of Malaysian prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), and grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) was used to irrigate a 0"79 ha mixed tree crop orchard of Solo papayas (Carica papaya), hybrid Williams bananas (Musa sp.), and Yamigata avocados (Persea americana). The integrated system was developed on 'waste' lava land (a'a lava) in Hawaii. Two years after stocking the pond and planting the orchard, the system has produced 133 kg of prawns, 69 kg offish, 658 kg of bananas, and 1090 kg of papayas. A sustained productivity of approximately 90 kg of papayas and 73 kg of bananas per week has been maintained on this waste lava land. Full agricultural production was accomplished by drip irrigating the orchard at approximately 38000 liters per week with fishpond water and top dressing with composted chicken manure with no imported chemical nutrients or traditional insect control measures. Using fishpond wastewaters for irrigating mixed tree crop orchards can improve numerous biological and economic problems of small farmers worldwide where waste agricultural soils exist, as well as providing a secure water source for conventional tree crop agriculture in regions of seasonal rainfall or frequent drought.

INTRODUCTION The need for dramatic increases in protein yields per hectare of arable land is apparent worldwide due to accelerating population growth and *Present address: Aquaculture Program, International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), MC PO Box 1501, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. 171 Aquaculmral Engineering 0144-8609/87/S03.50-- Elsevier Applied Science Publishers Ltd. England, 1987. Printed in Great Britain

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loss of prime agricultural lands to development. Rapid expansion of protein production onto marginal and waste agricultural lands must occur, along with a vigorous effort to preserve remaining prime agricultural lands. In this regard aquaculture has great potential to fulfil the world's present and future protein needs since it is uniquely suited to using both waste agricultural lands and water unfit for direct human consumption. Among the most productive agricultural systems today are integrated aquaculture-agriculture farming systems that produce a variety of products (e.g. fish, tree crops, vegetables, land animals) in one system (Delmendo, 1980; Edwards et al., 1983). These systems hold great promise for increasing the nutritional and financial well-being of farmers throughout the Tropics due to their high productivities and capability of promoting the full, efficient, and economic use of costly imported materials (Tan and Koo, 1980; Shang and Costa-Pierce, 1984). Although integrated farming systems are traditional practices in numerous Asian countries, notably China (Zweig, 1983), they have received little attention from Western farmers, scientists, and aid agencies until recently. In Hawaii, urbanization, tourism, and immigration have threatened the very basis of agriculture and rural farmers are faced with not only precarious weather (witness the recent 1983-84 drought) but also some of the highest costs of land, labor, capital, fertilizers, and feed in the world. As a result, Hawaii has become a major food importer, and is very vulnerable to food shortages if strikes or crop failures occur, or if transportation networks fail. In 1983 84% of the fresh market fruits a n d 58% of the fresh market vegetables were imported into Hawaii (Hawaii Agricultural Reporting Service, 1984). On the bright side, Hawaii has thousands of hectares of land (estimated by Ono, 1983, to be 54 000 ha of prime lands and 202000 ha of secondary lands) suitable for aquaculture along with year-round growing temperatures for numerous tropical and temperate species, and has one of the best aquaculture infrastructures in the world. In this study, an integrated agriculture-aquaculture farming system was implemented on the Kona ('lee') side of the Big Island of Hawaii in an area of seasonal rainfall at an elevation of approximately 333 m. A small reservoir was retrofitted into a freshwater fish-prawn polyculture pond with recirculation and was plumbed to irrigate a diverse, multispecies, tree crop orchard. Our objectives were to: (1) demonstrate the feasibility of irrigating and fertilizing a diverse orchard from an existing pond using an 'off the shelf' modern drip irrigation system; (2) conserve water, recharge groundwater, reduce pollution, and 'drought-proof' a farm by re-using wastewater that would normally be discharged; (3) decrease the need for imported fertilizers and water for agriculture by

bztegrated aquaculture on lava soils in Hawaii

173

using wastewater; (4) develop an integrated farm system and chart its long-term productivity in the Kona region that used 'wasteland' (a'a lava soil); (5) demonstrate the viability of integrated farms in providing a meaningful income and agricultural benefits to a growing number of small farms in Hawaii.

MATERIALS A N D METHODS The circular 1012 m 2 pond was constructed in a'a lava by crushing the lava to a sand with a bulldozer and excavating the cinders by digging a pit until the pond was uniformly 2.2 m in depth. This process was repeated until the desired depth was reached. The bottom of the pond, consisting of a'a lava, was next crushed by the bulldozer to a sand, and smoothed to remove all jagged edges of rock. The pit was then lined with an approximately 1500 m 2 30 mil butyl rubber liner and the edges of the liner buried in a trench outside the pit approximately 25 cm deep around the top of the circular pond. This trench was backfilled with rock and lava sand to hold the liner as the ground settled. A thin layer of cement (approximately 2 cm) was then 'blown' over the butyl rubber liner with a pressurized nozzle by a commercial cement firm to protect the liner from future environmental degradation. Pond design, excavation, and construction were done by Alternative Environments Inc. (PO Box 825, Honokaa, HI). A biological filtration/waterfall aeration/orchard irrigation system was constructed as follows (Fig. 1 ). Two 20 m lengths of 2 in PVC were cut vertically with a skill saw at approximately 0.8 cm intervals along one side of the PVC pipe only and both pipes capped and glued at one end. After cutting the slits in the pipes, they were then completely wrapped in in plastic Vexar screen all along their length. The screen was securely fastened onto the pipe by use of electrical cable ties. Both pipes were then placed on the bottom of the pond with the vertical slits facing upward towards the water column. Rocks and 'redi-mix' cement were used to permanently secure the PVC pipes with the slits in this 'upward' (e.g. "pondward') direction. The lengths of the PVC pipe extended completely across the bottom of the pond. The pipes were buried underneath approximately 100 m 3 of pea gravel that was put across the entire pond bottom to a depth of 10 cm. These two PVC pipes comprised the intake system for the waterfall aeration, tree crop orchard and landscape irrigation systems. One of the two PVC intake pipes was connected to a 2 hp pump that operated the tree crop orchard and landscape irrigation systems as well

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B. A. Costa-Pierce

,^ ~ 2 ~ ' ~

Waterfall , ~ Aerotion.J-~/ 1 , ' ~

City Water t nOut

If

2" PVC Intake Pi!oes

(,~)y / a t eachTree

Drip Emrnitter

::::::~:::

I ~ ~rip
;' 2m Avocado - Papaya j[ + Orchard
24m

~mmitter 7 ~ Z Z

~ ~ Banana Orchard : : :

Fig. 1. Overview of the integrated pond-waterfall-drip irrigation-orchard system. Pumps 1 and 2 are enclosed in a small pump house and run the waterfall, overhead landscape irrigation, and tree crop orchard drip irrigation systems. Avocados and papayas are indicated by A and P, respectively. as the waterfall aeration system. The other PVC intake pipe was connected to a 1.5 hp pump that operated only the waterfall aeration system and the outflow drainage system for harvesting the pond. Both pumps were mounted on a cement slab in a protective shed and connected by PVC fittings so that the waterfall aeration system could have a 3-5 hp pumping capacity; however, the landscape and tree crop orchard system had only a 2.0 hp pumping capacity (Fig. 1). The landscape and tree crop irrigation system only needed a 2 hp capacity to satisfy the drip irrigation needs of the 0.79 ha tree crop orchard and approximately 0.2 ha of ornamental landscaping. The waterfall aeration system consisted of an artificial stream constructed about 10 m above the pond containing three approximately 1 m 3 pools (about 20 cm deep). Water was, therefore, taken from the intake PVC pipe in the bottom of the pond, pumped to the top of the waterfalls about 10 m above the pond, and cascaded down the hillside in an artificial stream/pool complex before splashing onto the surface of the pond. 'Redi-mix' cement and lava rocks were used to form pools and an aesthetically pleasing waterfall for pond aeration. The tree crop

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orchard and landscape irrigation system consisted of eight overhead (3 m in height) rotary sprinklers for landscape irrigation around the pond and waterfalls area and 428 plastic emitters for drip irrigation of the mixed tree crop orchard (Roberts Irrigation Systems, Kailua-Kona, HI). On a daily basis: (1) water was taken from intake at the bottom of the pond and pumped by the 2 hp pump to the mixed tree crop orchard at a rate of approximately 5400 liters day-J (37 800 liters per week), (2) a valve was opened to irrigate the ornamental landscaping around the pond and waterfalls area for 2 h a day, equalling an irrigation rate of approximately 1100 liters day- 1. Plumbing for this irrigation system was quite simple, and the flows are detailed in Fig. 2. After construction, the
Aeration Pools S~

Woterfolt

K' Pond

Water

Gravel Biofilter~ PVC Intake 1~ PVC intake2~

Fig. 2. Plumbing diagram for the integrated aquaculture-mixed tree crop orchard svstem. Valves are indicated by the circles with numbers in them. PRV denotes a pressure .relief valve, and VBV, a vacuum-breaker valve, F an in-line plastic filter, 61 mesh (61 holes per cm). The filter was washed daily and replaced in the modular unit. Nightly aeration by use of both pumps was accomplished by closing valves 4, 5, and 9. Daily irrigation of the tree crop orchard and ornamental landscape was accomplished by using the 2 hp pump only and closing valve 3. Pond water lost due to evaporation was replaced by adding city water once weekly by opening valve 8. Drain harvest was accomplished by closing valves 5 and 9, and opening valve 4. Waterfall aeration was continued throughout drain harvests to maintain oxygen concentrations during draindowns.

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pond was filled to a depth of 2.2 m (2226 m 3) and the waterfall aeration system started. The waterfall aeration system was run continuously for 3 weeks until the beginnings of a phytoplankton bloom were noticed. The waterfall aeration system was thereafter connected to a timer and run only in the evening from 21.00 to 06.00 h. City water was used to make up evaporation losses as they were recorded weekly (approximately 7.5 m 3 per week). To start up the biofilter and test the system's potential toxicity to aquatic animals, approximately 30 kg total of aquarium fish (mollies and gobies) were stocked in three stockings in March and April 1982 (stocking biomass of 0.1 kg m -3 of biofilter volume). These fish were seen to flourish in the system and were allowed to exist unhampered until the current feasibility study commenced. At the time of harvest the owner of the fishpond has marketed approximately 65 kg of 20-50 g mollies and 5-10 g gobies to local and regional pet stores at some S0"25-1"50 per fish. The pond was stocked from 4 June 1982 to 13 May 1983 with prawns and a mixed population of mullet and Chinese carp and harvested by draining on 14 April 1984. Stocking densities of the various species are detailed in Table 1. Fish were fed 3% per day of their stocked biomass in two daily feedings (07.00-09.00 h and 16.0019.00 h) until 1 March 1983; thereafter the fish were fed ad libitum each day at the same times of day until satiation ( 10-16 kg day - ~) with a floating catfish ration. Common carp (10) and silver carp (2) were added as 'sanitary fish' (Costa-Pierce et al., 1984) to the system since it was anticipated that large amounts of particulates would gather on the surface of the pea gravel. These fish were stocked to help keep this material in suspension. Water quality monitoring of the system was conducted in the early morning (06.00-08.00 h) occasionally (every 2-3 days) by checking dissolved oxygen with a YSI oxygen meter, pH with a Chemtrix portable pH meter, and ammonia-nitrogen concentrations by use of a Hach kit. On four occasions 500 ml water samples for total and soluble nitrogen and phosphorus and total potassium concentrations were taken and analyzed. Total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were measured according to Costa-Pierce et al. (1984) and potassium concentrations by flame emission spectrophotometry. Soluble nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations were measured after filtration of the samples according to Strickland and Parsons (1972). The orchard was planted in the following manner (Fig. 1 ). Avocados were planted on 7.3 m centers with 7.2 m between rows of trees (40 avocados). Papayas were planted between the avocados on 2.4 m centers so that two papaya trees were equally spaced between each avocado tree.

TABLE I Stocking and Yield Data from the Pond System

Stocking Number Biomass (kg) Days cultured Number % Survival Biomass (kg)

ltarvest (14 April 84) Net YieM (kg ha- i)

I)ate

Species

Before 4 June 82 4 June 8]2 18 June 82 2 Dec 82 17 Feb 83 17 Feb 83 13 May 83 -i 5 000 47 10 2 19 2 365 17 443 30"0 1.5 7.0 3"0 1.2 2"8 33-4 48"9 679 679 665 501 421 421 336 NA -2220 " 10 2 55 0 2287 -15 " 100 100 83 0 13

Aquarium fish Prawn Grey mullet C o m m o n carp Silver carp Grey mullet Summer mullet Totals h

65-0 133"0 u 30"2 3"7 34-7 0"0 201"6

350"0 1315"0 o 272"0 25"0 249-0 0"0 1861'0

"Harvest statistics for grey mullet stocked at different times are computed together since no method of separating stocks was attempted. i, Totals do not include aquarium fish data.

,......1 '--.,,1

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The orchard was planted in this manner to take full advantage of the differing maturities and growth forms of the two tree crops. Papayas mature at 13-18 months and grow as tall, skinny trees with small canopies, whereas avocados mature at 24-36 months and are bushy with spreading canopies. Therefore, as the avocados mature and their canopies spread out they crowd and shade out the papayas. After 24 months one of the two papayas was removed from the rows and usually at 36 months all papayas were removed. Growers in Hawaii usually replant papayas in 'spaces' in a fully-developed avocado orchard at that time. In our scheme we used citrus trees instead of papayas as fillers in the orchard. At initial planting (March-September "1983) the avocado orchard contained 225 seedling papayas, 40 avocados, 11 citrus trees (6 oranges, 1 pomelo, 1 lemon, 2 tangerines, 1 grapefruit), 6 mature mangos, and 2 jaboticata on 0.60 ha. On 0.19 ha 150 hybrid Williams bananas were planted on 1 m centers with 2 m between rows. All of the 428 seedlings were provided with plastic emitters from the drip irrigation system; the 6 mangos were fully established trees approximately 10 years old and were not provided with emitters.

RESULTS Productivity of papayas and bananas was excellent during the harvests which commenced 12 months after planting. Papayas averaged 27 fruit per tree and by 12 months, 342 kg of papayas and 374 kg of marketable bananas had been harvested. In 2 years 1090 kg of papayas and 658 kg of bananas were harvested. Banana stalks had an average of 18 kg of harvestable bananas each. Hands averaged 20 bananas on the lower, and 30 on the top half of stalks. Stalks averaged 12 hands each and each banana tree averaged 5 stalks. Based upon interviews with long-term farmers on the Kona coast, the number of bananas per hand, hands per stalk, and stalks per banana were all above average for the area. The early maturation of the papaya trees (at 12 months rather than 13-18 months) was also noteworthy. Survival of prawns in the pond was 15% of the stocked post-larvae (PL); whereas survival of the 'sanitary' carp was 100% and grey mullets 83% (Table 1 ). The majority of harvested prawns (63%) were marketable in size (> 10.5 cm) and averaged 60.0 g in weight (Table 2). Yield of prawns for the approximately 2-year growth period was 133-0 kg. All summer mullet stocked into the pond directly from brackish water died (Table 1 ). The farm manager on duty during this period, however, never recorded a single dead 'floater'. Grey mullet, in contrast, were stocked

Integrated aquaculture on lava soils in Hawaii

TABLE 2 Prawn Yield Characteristics from the Pond System

179

Characteristic
Mean size (cm) Mean weight (g) Size range (cm) % Harvest size ( > 10.5 cm) Productivity (kg ha- i yr- J)

Stocking
-0.5 (Post-larvae) NA NA

Harvest
13.4 + 2-1 60.0 8"0 - 17.0 63 707

from a freshwater pond into the Kona pond and had a good survival (Table 1 ). The waterfall aeration system was operated each evening and a remarkably healthy phytoplankton bloom was maintained throughout the 2-year period. Occasional checks on early morning dissolved oxygen, pH, and ammonia revealed no critical conditions with water quality during the 2-year experimental period. However, it is possible that early morning readings did not accurately predict possible high un-ionized ammonia concentrations since the thick phytoplankton bloom increased pH concentrations in the afternoon.

DISCUSSION Development of aquaculture in reservoir ponds could not only insure a reliable source of irrigation water in areas subject to seasonal drought but also provide some fertilizer value in the irrigation process. Development of fish polyculture in irrigation reservoirs has become widespread in Israel (Sarig, 1984). The main financial incentive for this practice is that the cost of production of fish production need not include the cost of water since it is borne by the ultimate consumer, the irrigated agriculture. In addition further development of aquaculture on lava lands or other 'waste' agriculture lands could greatly expand the range of food production system~ in the arid tropics. The Kona region on the Big Island of Hawaii is a region with an excellent climate for tropical aquaculture; however, it is mostly covered by extensive lava fields and experiences frequent and seasonal drought. This farm, however, maintained very high orchard productivity during a recent drought (June-November 1984) that was among the worst in recent memory. In addition to 'drought-proofing' a tree crop orchard, the aquaculture reservoir added some fertilizer value to the orchard with the irrigation water applied. Discharge of aquaculture wastewaters is a growing

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B. A. Costa-Pierce

problem in many areas (Boyd, 1978; Bergheim et al., 1982) and re-use of wastewaters downstream for irrigating agriculture operations could reduce pollution in receiving waters, as well as conserve the valuable nutrients in the wastewater and recycle them to agriculture. However, in this study nutrient concentrations of the aquaculture wastewater comprised a very low fertilizer value (Table 3); commercial 1-1-1 fertilizer contains 10000 ppm N:10000 ppm P205:10000 ppm K20. Even at the highest nutriefit levels recorded in this study, quantities are not enough to sustain high productivity of a mixed avocado-papayabanana orchard (Schwitzgebel, pers. comm.). Therefore extra compost top dressing is essential to maintain high productivities. We applied composted chicken manure and macadamia nut husks at a rate of 600 kg ha- ~per month to the orchard to maintain this high productivity.
TABLE 3 Nutrient Concentrations of Aquaculture Wastewaters

Date

Total Organic-N ~ Soluble-N b Total Phosphate-P Total nitrogen (ppm) (ppm) phosphorus ( p p m ) potassium (ppm) (ppm) (ppm)
568 493 523 674 493-674 564 79 238 227 247 263 227-263 244 15 330 266 276 411 266-411 321 66 36 30 31 44 30-44 35 6 11 8 9 14 8-14 10 3 22 17 27 26 17-27 23 4

5 Nov 83 8Jan 84 6Feb 84 10Mar84 Range Mean S.D.

"Organic-N values obtained by subtraction of soluble-N values from total-N values. hSoluble-N values are the additions of ammonia-N, nitrite-N, and nitrate-N values.

Total prawn harvest was suboptimal considering that first year farms of 0.4-0.81 ha in size in Hawaii average 1670 kg ha-~ yr-~ (Malecha, 1983) while extrapolated production was only 707 kg ha-t yr-t (Table 2). Prawn survival from PL to adult was also suboptimal (15%) considering Shang ( 1981 ) reported an average survival of 25% of the 165 000 PLs per ha initially stocked in Hawaiian prawn ponds. Possible reasons for these suboptimal yields were lower temperatures at the site since the for these suboptimal yields were lower temperatures at the site since the pond was located at 333 m in elevation, and the long period of grow-out of the prawns which certainly increased competition and predation. The standing crop of prawns at harvest was 131 g m -2 (133 kg per 1012 m 2) which is estimated to be close to the 'critical standing crop" of 145-207 g m -2 (Malecha, 1983).

Integrated aquaculture on lava soils in Hawaii

181

Death of all summer mullet stocked was hypothesized to result from salinity shock since these fingerlings were stocked directly from brackish water into the freshwater pond. Although these mullet were mentioned to the author to be able to tolerate direct transfer to freshwater (Cooper, pers. comm.), symptoms of stress appeared after stocking. It is possible that no dead fish were observed because they were eaten by the prawns when they sank to the pond bottom. Death of the fish due to poor water quality, however, cannot be ruled out. CONCLUSION In summary this initial study has demonstrated that waste lava land in Hawaii at a 333 m elevation and in an area of frequent drought can produce significant income from diverse prawn aquaculture and tree crop farming operations, Income from the sale of prawns, bananas, and papayas from March 1983-March 1984 has exceeded the costs of operating the farm (including stock, water, compost, fertilizer, electricity, labor) and paying its taxes. Production of these commodities has also met the subsistence needs of the landowner and his family since 1983. The farm successfully meets the State of Hawaii's criteria of sufficient agricultural productivity to keep the land zoned as 'agricultural' and provides the financial incentive needed to resist the persistent pressure for commercial or tourism-related development. Given the ability of this small pond-orchard integrated system to provide enough income to exceed the costs of its yearly operating expenses, this farm system may serve as a viable agricultural system for converting Hawaii's thousands of hectares of marginal and "waste' lava lands into productive farm enterprises. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The expert technical assistance of J. Wagner, C. O'Neill, E. Dung, E Schultz, and C. Winge is gratefully appreciated. Special Aloha to L. HoPierce for typing and revising the manuscript and Dr E. A. Laws for providing laboratory facilities. REFERENCES Bergheim, A., Sivertsen, A. & Selmer Olsen, A. R. (1982). Estimated pollution loadings from Norwegian fish farms. I. Investigations 1979-1982. Aquaculture, 28, 347-61.

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Boyd, C. E. (1978). Effluents from catfish ponds during the fish harvest. J. Environ. Qual., 7, 59-62. Costa-Pierce, B. A., Clay, L., Malecha, S. R. & Laws, E. A. (1984). Polyculture of fish and prawns at commercial densities and reduced feeding rates. I. Water and sediment microbiology. J. WorldMaricul. Soc., 15,367-90. Dehnendo, M. N. (1980). A review of integrated livestock-fowl fish farming systems. In: Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture Farming Systems, eds R. S. V. PuUin and Z. H. Shehadeh, International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management, Manila, Philippines, pp. 59-72. Edwards, E, Weber, K. E., McCoy, E. W., Chantachaeng, C., Pacharaprakiti, C., Kaewpaitoon, K. & Nitsmer, C. (1983). Small-Scale Fishery Project in Pathumthani Province, Central Thailand: A Socio-Economic and Technological Assessment of Status and Potential. Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Hawaii Agricultural Reporting Service (1984). Statistics of Hawaiian Agriculture, 1983. Hawaii Department of Agricultural Marketing and Consumer Services Division, Honolulu, Hawaii. Malecha, S. R. (1983). Commercial pond production of the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, in Hawaii. In: CRC Handbook of Aquaculture, Vol. I, Crustacean Aquaculture, ed. J. E McVey, CRC Press, Boca Raton. Florida, pp. 231-59. Ono, S. (1983). Hawaii's aquaculture industry: 1983. Aquaculture in Hawaii Newsletter, 1 (5), 1-3. Sarig, S. (1984). The integration of fish culture into general farm irrigation systems in Israel. Bamidgeh, 36, 16-20. Shang, Y. C. (1981 ). Freshwater Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) Production in Hawaii: Practices and Economics. University of Hawaii Sea Grant Misc. Report UNIHI-SEAGRANT-MR-81-07, 36 pp. Shang, Y. C. & Costa-Pierce, B. A. (1984). Integrated agriculture-aquaculture farming systems: Some economic aspects, J. World Maricul. Soc., 14, 523-30. Strickland, J. D. H. & Parsons, T. R. (1972). A practical handbook of seawater analysis. Bull. Fish. Res. Bd Can., 167. Tan, E. S. E & Koo, K. H. (1980). The integration of fish farming with agriculture in Malaysia. In: Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture Farming Systems, eds R. S. V. Pullin and Z. H. Shehadeh, International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management, Manila, Philippines, pp. 175-88. Zweig, R. D. (1983). Aquaculture strategies in China. Ocean us, 26, 33-9.