Economic & Operational Impact Analysis of a Solar Powered Remote Water Quality Management System Designed for an Indoor Biofloc Aquaculture Setup

Abstract

The Philippines, the world's second largest archipelago located in Southeast Asia and the westernmost Pacific Ocean. Because of the great diversity of habitats, fishes and other genetic resources, it is considered a mega-diversity country. Biofloc systems have been developed to improve control over output in the area of production. This technology solves issues in areas where water is scarce or land is costly, while work for cost effective production and water quality management is recommended due to the complexity of the technology's production system. The researchers of this study have designed and developed a prototype which aims to manage the water quality by means of managing the pH, dissolved oxygen and temperature levels and with an automated feeding system. The researchers took advantage of this opportunity to establish the economic & operational feasibility study of the integrated biofloc process into an automated water management system. The feasibility study results showed a high opportunity of the biofloc together with the automated management system to be a sustainable means of fishing in the Philippines. The ROI (Return of Investments) for the target investors and fish farmer /entrepreneur were computed and found to be at 112 percent and 103.47 percent respectively. It was established that the integrated automated water management system is economically and operationally feasible.