aquaculture

Watercress has been cultured and harvested for hundreds of years in many countries around the world. Perhaps due to its familiarity it has been almost ignored as an aquacultural crop – it is seen simply as another species suitable for hydroponic growing – at times simply because an entrepreneur spotted an opportunity – as in this historic watercress farm in Maryland, USA.

According to the Watercress Alliance, watercress has been prized for its food values as well as flavour -

Brimming with more than 15 essential vitamins and minerals, its health giving properties has been known since ancient times. Around 400 BC on the Island of Kos, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is said to have located his first hospital beside a stream so that he could grow a plentiful supply of watercress to help treat his patients, the Greek general Xenophon made his soldiers eat it to increase their vigour before going into battle and Roman emperors said it enabled them to make “bold decisions.”

The annual Alresford Watercress Festival is held in celebration of the health, nutrition, flavour, historic, and economic virtues of watercress. Further exploration of the properties of the watercress includes a research investigation into the potential of watercress as a superfood. It would be just wrong to not mention the pleasures of cooking with watercress as well.

Watercress (Nasturtium microphyllium, Nasturtium officinale) is a species gazetted for land-based aquaculture in New Zealand. The Australian Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) have published indicating that larger scale watercress production has potential as a vibrant new production industry catering to the demand for new flavours and healthy foods in Australia. The full report Potential for Watercress Production in Australia is available online. This from the media release:

Watercress plants are aquatic members of the brassica (cabbage) family, and are botanically related to garden cress and mustard — characterized by a peppery, tangy flavour. The vegetable is associated with a range of health benefits and contains significant amounts of iron, calcium and folic acid, in addition to vitamins A and C.

The plants are relatively easy to row, and production systems can be hydroponic or gravel based. While gravel-based production offers more cost-effective mechanized harvesting and handling, hydroponic systems offer greater water-use efficiency.

The RIRDC-funded research collates information useful to potential investors in watercress production and marketing in Australia, including new opportunities for its introduction into Australian diets, both as a flavoursome salad or in new cooked recipes.

It seems possible that the domestic or backyard aquaculturalist has a potential to explore watercress farming – here’s an indication of how it might be achieved from Herbs from Wales. A similar approach using watercress is described at Growing Power in Wisconsin, USA, and for another perspective of the use of watercress as a water filter plant in the same development. In contrast, the Independent (UK) reports of environmental issues for the Bourne, a small chalk river, renown for its trout fishing, having been polluted by a watercress farm.

In general, detailed information about the practical husbandry of watercress is quite difficult. Courtesy of the wayback engine, it is possible to examine an article from a 1947 edition of the Herts (Hertfordshire, UK) Countryside by W. G. S. Crook, J.P. – Down to the Cress Beds. From the article –

Cultivation requires about one person per acre for the whole operation of planting, bunching, washing and dispatching, together with the incidental work of maintaining the ditches. The men are supplied with thigh-length wading boots. During the winter months the cress is kept down in the water as far as possible by the use of heather brooms or wooden rollers as a protection against frost. At this time the crop makes its quickest growth close upon the outlet from the artesian wells, where the temperature of the water is most conducive to growth; at the far end of the ditch it may be very retarded because of the drop in temperature.

The potential of duckweed as a high-protein feed resource has been reported here previously.

Bui Xuan Men, Brian Ogle, and T R Preston have published research findings entitled Use of restricted broken rice in duckweed based diets for fattening Common and Muscovy ducks (Livestock Research for Rural Development, Volume 8, Number 3, September 1996). From the abstract:

A feeding system of restricted levels of broken rice (60 to 80 g/day) with free access to fresh duckweed appears to be appropriate for the Common type of duck typically used for foraging on rice fields throughout Vietnam. More research is needed in order to ascertain if the apparent capacity of Common ducks to eat large quantities of duckweed really is a comparative advantage and, if so, how this can best be used to improve the economic benefits to small scale poor farmers.

The authors have also published Duckweed (Lemna spp) as replacement for roasted soya beans in diets of broken rice for fattening ducks on a small scale farm in the Mekong delta (Livestock Research for Rural Development, Volume 8, Number 3, September 1996). From the abstract:

There was a slight indication (P=0.1 for females and 0.34 for males) that carcass yield was reduced on the duckweed treatments but differences were small. There were no differences in weights of chest and thigh muscle nor in heart and liver weights.

For farmers growing the duckweed there were economic benefits on all duckweed diets with best results from the complete substitution of the soya beans.

Paul Skillicorn, William Spira, and William Journey have published an extensive report entitled Duckweed Aquaculture – A new aquatic system for developing countries (The World Bank – Emena Technical Department, Agricultural Division). From the foreword:

Although duckweed species are familiar to most people who have seen the tiny aquatic plants covering stagnant water bodies, few people realize their potential. Until a few years ago, man made little use of duckweed species. Their unique properties, such as their phenomenal growth rate, high protein content, ability to clean wastewater and thrive in fresh as well as brackish water, were only recognized by a few scientists.

Prior to 1988 duckweed had been used only in commercial applications to treat wastewater in North America. In 1989 staff of a non-governmental organization based in Columbia, Maryland, The PRISM Group, initiated a pilot project in Bangladesh to develop farming systems for duckweed and to test its value as a fish feed. An earlier project in Peru investigated the nutritional value of dried duckweed meal in poultry rations.

The results of the pilot operations were extremely promising; production of duckweed-fed carp far exceeded expectations, and dried duckweed meal provided an excellent substitute for soy and fish meals in poultry feeds. Duckweed could be grown using wastewater for nutrients, or alternatively using commercial fertilizers.

During start-up of the pilot operations it also became apparent how little is known about the agronomic aspects of producing various species of the duckweed family, and exactly why it is so effective as a single nutritional input for carp and other fish.

Although these pilot operations were located in South Asia and Latin America, the results suggested that the plant would be important as a source of fish and poultry feed and simultaneously as a wastewater treatment process in selected areas of the Middle East, particularly in Egypt and Pakistan.

Technical and agronomic information about duckweed culture and feed use, and details of farming duckweed and fish in a single system, are not easily available to the general public, let alone to fish farmers in developing countries. The pilot operations in Bangladesh demonstrated that duckweed and fish culture can succeed commercially, although such ventures would initially require technical assistance and information. In many other areas of the world pilot operations linked to applied research may be required to review production parameters before commercial operations should be initiated. This Technical Study was therefore designed to bring together, in one publication, relevant information on duckweed culture and its uses to make people worldwide aware of the potential of this plant, to disseminate the currently available technical and agronomic information, and to list those aspects that require further research, such as duckweed agronomy, genetics and use in animal feeds.

This Technical Study is aimed at the following audiences: (a) established fish farmers who would like to experiment with duckweed as a fish feed, and staff of agricultural extension services involved in fish culture; (b) scientists of aquaculture research institutes who may initiate pilot operations and applied research on duckweed; (c) staff of bilateral and multilateral donor agencies who may promote funding for duckweed research and pilot operations; and (d) wastewater specialists in governments and donor agencies who may promote wastewater treatment plants based on duckweed in conjunction with fish culture.

In Weeds to Wealth, the Equator Initiative reports on case studies of growing red seaweeds in Brazil. The Equator Initiative is a partnership bringing together the United Nations, civil society, business, governments and communities to help build the capacity and raise the profile of grassroots efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

From the report:

In Flecheiras, seaweed cultivators adopt the following method. A rope structure is attached to the sea bed and to buoys near the beach, and seaweed plants are cultivated in the rope. Planting is therefore carried out in shallow waters, and caring for the crop is done through frequent visits by boat. After approximately 3½ months, the plants can be harvested, cleaned and dried for retail. In general, seaweed loses about 80 per cent of its weight after drying. It is possible to cultivate several tonnes of seaweed in each location and studies have been made into the possibility of reducing the growing period. This would have the combined benefit of increasing income and reducing the seasonality of production. In areas such as Flecheiras and Guajiru, harvest periods as low as two months have been achieved.

There has been other research into the non-edible qualities of Brazilian seaweeds – the Brazilian Journal of Biology, vol.63 no.4 São Carlos Nov. 2003, has published research findings by Pereira, da Gama, Teixeira, and Yoneshigue-Valentin. The researchers noted that the Brazilian red seaweed Laurencia obtusa inhibited feeding by herbivores, and conducted research to discover what compounds were present in the plant. From the abstract:

Laboratory and field experiments were performed to assess the ecological roles of natural products produced by the Brazilian red seaweed Laurencia obtusa. Laboratory assays revealed that the natural concentration of the crude organic extract of L. obtusa significantly inhibited feeding by two herbivores: the crab Pachygrapsus transversus and the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus. It was verified that this chemically defensive action was due to halogenated sesquiterpenoid elatol, found to be the major natural product of this red seaweed. In addition, it was verified that the antifouling property of the chemicals produced by L. obtusa could make this red alga less attractive for fish grazing. Direct protection against two herbivore species and indirect protection against herbivory by fouling inibition constitute evidence that the major natural product from Brazilian L. obtusa plays multiple environmental roles, thereby increasing the adaptive value of these metabolites. On the other hand, the evidence reinforces the idea that marine natural products may have different functions in the sea.

<< Wasabi japonica – a grower’s story part 2 <<

The inteview with Michel Van Mellaerts from New Zealand Wasabi Ltd concludes:

Lynsey: Have you developed improved or enhanced crops, or is wasabi still something of a wild, species plant?

Michel: Every crop we select for the best plants. These plants are then cloned for the next set of plants. In this way we are continually improving the plant stock. Relying on plant from seed is almost a lesson in futility. For a start, seed germination is a really hit and miss affair. Cloning preparation is really what sorts the men from the boys. Wasabi in its natural state is a “dirty” plant in a biological sense. Getting some to the point where they can be cloned takes a lot of time and expertise. We only provide cloned plants to our license holders. We do not supply plants to other potential growers.

One of the things we have found over the years is that if you try and help someone get started in this wasabi growing without any serious financial commitment from them to making it work, then they stuff it up. It is amazing the amount of potential growers who decided once they had some plants that they didn’t need to take any notice of what we told them to do in order to grow wasabi successfully. Even supplying our licensed growers with a detailed growing manual entails hours of time ensuring that they do not take short cuts, as what we tell them to do “does not make sense”.

Lynsey: What would be the ultimate accolade or success – the ‘academy award’ for wasabi?

Michel: I don’t really know. Some people already refer to us as “Mr. & Mrs. Wasabi”. For many years (over a decade) now we have been saying that wasabi contains chemicals that kill cancer cells. Now we have independent scientific proof that this is the case. We have offered the New Zealand Health Board as much wasabi as they want for free to help their cancer patients. To date, they have refused citing the fact that the FDA have not authorised the use of wasabi in the treatment of cancer in any form. This to me is a crock, as wasabi is a food and can be consumed by anyone at any time without any problems – apart from water being excreted from the eyes .

Along those lines, we believe our ultimate accolade would be seeing 100% pure Wasabia japonica being used successfully as a medical treatment. Then we will have achieved what we set out to do in 1990 – make a difference!

Lynsey: What environmental concerns are there feeding into and out of wasabi farming?

Michel: In New Zealand we have to deal with the Resource Management Act, which basically precluding the taking and discharge of water into the environment. Because of that we have developed a growing system that does neither. In Japan, they grow wasabi in modified streambeds and/or specially built growing beds (the last of which was built over 200 years ago – and now no one knows how to build). If we wanted to do the same the expense would be astronomical and then we couldn’t be sure after spending all that time and money that the Environment Court would allow it to be used. So we decided to remove this uncertainty all together by developing a system that can be put anywhere. In the town or in the country, the effect is still the same for the environment.

Lynsey: New Zealand is a long way from anywhere – is the local market sufficient to sustain the business, and is exporting a potential (or a reality)?

Michel: The local market does not exist, either here in New Zealand or Australia. That is slowly changing in New Zealand, but the Australian quarantine rules and the way they are interpreted ensures that it is almost impossible to get clearance to import the plants into Australia. 99.9% of all our products go to USA and Europe. We ship our 100% pure Wasabia japonica powder all over the world. With the Internet distance is no longer a problem. We are only as far away from our clients as a computer screen.

Lynsey: Has there been a time when it looked really bad – what happened and how did you manage if?

Michel: Initially, when we kept killing plants we thought that this was too hard. This was especially true when we realised that the “experts” were using our money to learn how to do things. Dumping the experts was the best thing that we did.

Another time I had some trades people do some work on our facility and although they assured me that they knew what they were doing, when we ended up with 200mm of water right through the facility on Good Friday evening we realised that they lied. Running around at that period trying to talk a tanker driver into making an emergency water delivery before midnight in order to stop some exotic plants dying was interesting.

The wasabi two-step struck us even before we erected our first growing facility. We had pegged out where it was to go, and we had surveyed the property to maximise the growing areas when the wasabi growing took off (how was that for confidence). Anyway I happened to be away when the builder turned up to put the foundations in. Jenny showed him the pegs and left him to it (our kids were very small at the time). She came back after about 4 hours to find that he had pulled up the pegs and thrown them away, moved the structure foundations some 10m from where we wanted it and had dug and started pouring the foundations. Needless to say Jenny was not very pleased. Neither was I when I found out. Ultimately the builder was not pleased either, as we refused to pay him. We should have realised then that we were going to have problems with this project .

Lynsey: Not everything is all bad. What has been the funniest experience?

Michel: The funniest experience had to be when we got paid (in cash) for our first crop. For some reason Jenny went out to the farm and did some work around the water system. When she came back she didn’t have the money with her anymore. It turned out it went into the system and disintegrated. We always said that the wasabi was made of money after that.

Lynsey: Where to from here?

Michel: This is another good question to end with. We will continue growing, processing and marketing, either by ourselves or with others. We have a book full of new products that we are working on. A number of these are unique and have never been available before. The number of people working with us will also grow as our vision strikes a chord with them. In the last 15 years most wasabi growers in the world have vanished as they remained in the only market they knew – food. We never had that outlook and will continue to invent, develop and bring into our fold completely new markets that do not have any preconceived ideas. We intend to shape those markets and ideas to benefit all people within our “cooperative”, and society as a whole. As I said before – we want to make a difference!

Disclaimer: I have no association with New Zealand Wasabi Ltd.

<< Wasabi japonica – a grower’s story part 1 <<

The second part of the inteview with Michel Van Mellaerts from New Zealand Wasabi Ltd continues:

Lynsey: How did you finance the development – were the banks/investors keen, and if not, how did you manage?

Michel: We have financed this operation from our own resources. Initially, I worked as a consultant for others in the engineering field. This enabled us to plow money into this project to get it off the ground. The biggest problem was that the banks did not (and still do not understand) what wasabi is all about. The idea that a plant takes up to three years to grow to maturity and it isn’t a tree leaves them floundering.

Even now, with all our success, they have no interest in financing the company without personal guarantees. To date, we have no investors (and we haven’t looked for any), although a substantial cash injection would be nice. Most of our profits get put back into NZW research and development, with regard to all aspects of the operation – growing, processing, developing and marketing new unique products. We still are the only company that produces nutraceutical grade 100% pure water grown Wasabia japonica powder. We developed and effectively own this growing market.

Lynsey: How do you manage the workload between Jenny and yourself?

Michel: Both of us do whatever is necessary. We can both turn our hand to anything from keeping plants alive to getting orders out to clients. We work together as a team. However, most of the time I spend my time on the technical development and marketing side. Jenny normally deals with clients, getting the orders out, keeping track of stock, etc. Since neither of us like dealing with the accounts, we have bookkeeper that keeps that end of it straight.

Lynsey: How do you factor family life into the daily reality of running a farm?

Michel: Family life is the farm. All the boys have grown up with the farm. They do not remember Jenny or me doing anything else. We are and have been always at home and available for them 24/7. The kids (all 4 of them) take absolute priority over the farm or business. Jenny spends a great deal of her time ensuring that the kids get all the opportunities to develop themselves. I concentrate on the business and making enough money to keep everything going. Two of our boys are now at university. They both call home on a regular basis and tell Jenny and I what’s been going on. We are a very close-knit family and take pride in each other’s achievements.

Lynsey: How do you find any staff if you need to employ?

Michel: Employing staff is the most difficult piece of the whole operation. Finding people who haven’t left their brains at the front gate really stretches one’s patience. For that reason, most of our growers are licensees of our growing system. They have a very strong financial interest in actually making sure that things run smoothly, the plants don’t die, and there is a decent crop for harvesting at maturity. When you employ people, we found that we spent more time keeping an eye on what they were doing. The growing of wasabi is totally different to what people normally expect, and to that end breaking their bad habits becomes difficult.

Lynsey: Are there special skills required for the harvesting propagation etc?

Michel: Yes, there are. All of these skills are straightforward and learnable. Once again, it comes down to thinking about what you are doing and what do you want the end result to be. This is true throughout the growing period anyway.

Lynsey: Is the need for staff exist throughout the year or is wasabi a seasonal crop?

Michel: Apart from keeping a regular (daily) eye on the crop the planting and harvesting periods are the most staff intensive. However, after a number of crops it is possible to spread the planting and harvesting throughout the growing period. This makes having a full time (or part time) helper very likely. Some growers prefer to plant and harvest all at one time, but we prefer harvesting little and often.

Lynsey: What would be required for you to expand your business – assuming you want to, of course.

Michel: Money, of course, but mainly people who share the vision. I know that sounds a bit rah rah, but we have found that being in this business that chasing money isn’t what it is all about.

Over the years we have coined a term for the ups and downs, we call it the “Wasabi two step”. It consists of one step forward, one step back, and two to the side. We appear to be standing still, but really we are slowly crabbing our way around the dance floor.

When we first started we thought that once we figured out how to grow wasabi, then finding a market (the Japanese one sprung immediately to mind) to pay us $100 a kilo would be easy. Not true – in fact we found dealing with the Japanese to be a very unsatisfactory proposition. The importers would lie to your face and then change terms of the contract as and when it suited them. We now no longer deal with them at all.

From that point we decided to develop our own markets, or shut shop. That took a lot of time, effort and education. Finally we have some big distributors on board who also share the vision. We then came up against the price and perception problem – 99% of all “wasabi” being sold is actually coloured horseradish.

Now we had to find a different market that would appreciate our 100% pure Wasabia japonica product. This was based on a decision that we were only going to provide the very highest quality product – others could debase it if they wanted to. Now, not only did we need to identify another potential market, but we also had to educate all links in the retail chain to the benefits of using our material. This involved more investment in time, effort and money to identify and support this potential new market.

The “wasabi two step” is on-going and where we will end up we truly do not know. One thing is certain, being true to our selves and our vision is where it is at with our company.

At this time we need more growers on the ground to supply our demanding clients with our new products. Having more marketers would also help. Not necessary employees, but people who can see the big picture and the path to get there. People who can think on their feet are also essential. We regard our operation as a cooperative between growers, processors and marketers. All parts of the three-legged stool are essential to maintain balance. In this day and age it appears that this cooperation in supply and demand has vanished from the farming scene, as supermarkets now dictate price, terms and requirements to growers, so that the supermarkets can retain the lions share of the profits. We believe that the profits should be split equally as we all need each other to succeed. To this end we operate a vertically integrated company where we control all aspects of the operation from growing to retail.

Part three continues…>>

Disclaimer: I have no association with New Zealand Wasabi Ltd.