
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania is one of the co-funding organisations of this International Research and Development project.
Duration:
36 months. 2024.03.01 – 2027.02.28
Total Project Budget:
732,000 EUR
Partner budget:
100,000 EUR
Green ERA-Hub innitiative under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program
ProRMAS
Producing valuable proteins and organic fertilizers from saline water sources using a recirculating multitrophic aquaponic system
The goal of ProRMAS is to develop recirculating multi-trophic aquaponic systems (RMAS) as an innovative food production system that will close the cycle, produce the highest quality protein, and maximize water and nutrient use efficiency.
Shrimp will be cultivated as the high-value food; polychaetes will be produced as an alternative to fishmeal in feeds, while recovering nutrients and reducing organic wastes via remineralization. The halophyte plants and the macroalgae can absorb dissolved nutrients and will be used in the feed and also for human consumption, due to their nutritional and nutraceutical properties. In RMAS plant production, the need for fertilizer is minimized and the plant growth is optimized. Finally, any organic solid residue remaining in the system will be valorized as bio-fertilizers in testing on soil and soil-less vegetables species, reducing waste and nutrient loss to zero. This way, the ProRMAS system will use otherwise unusable saline water resources to produce high-value protein in a closed nutrient cycle.
Diversified, high-value RMAS production could increase farmers’ profits and increase farm resilience. The ProRMAS project will carry out an economic analysis of individual products and explore the integration of individual factors to ensure that there are realistic economic models for the technology transfer.
ProRMAS project is part of the programme of the Green ERA-Hub that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101056828.