Engineer Grows 500 Kg Monthly Using Fish to Feed Plants

Shashank Chaubey was living comfortably in Delhi when he read something that changed his life: vegetables sold in his city were grown in polluted water and loaded with heavy metals. The 33-year-old electronics engineer decided if he wanted safe food, he'd have to grow it himself.

In 2018, he quit his job and moved to Vadodara with zero farming experience. Like most city dwellers, he faced one big problem: no space for a traditional garden.

That's when he discovered aquaponics, a clever system that combines fish farming with vegetable growing. Fish live in tanks, and their waste gets broken down by bacteria into nitrates. That nutrient-rich water then cycles through containers growing plants.

The setup mimics a natural river ecosystem, but on a terrace. Shashank upcycled old drums and cans as fish tanks, adding iron nails, lime, and eggshells to boost nutrients.

After six months of research and help from a local agricultural institute, he started growing food under artificial lights in a 600 sq ft space. Seven months ago, he expanded to a commercial 2,000 sq ft terrace farm.

Today, Shashank grows 2,500 varieties of plants including leafy greens, medicinal herbs, and flowers. His monthly harvest reaches 500 kg of organic vegetables, all without soil or chemical fertilizers.

The system uses 80 percent less water than traditional farming. Farmers can also sell the fish they raise, creating a second income stream.

The Ripple Effect

Shashank isn't keeping this knowledge to himself. He's trained 35 people across Gujarat and Rajasthan to set up their own aquaponics systems, charging between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 for six-hour classes.

Gautam Trivedi, a 26-year-old music producer from Vadodara, took Shashank's training and built a system in just 50 sq ft of his garden. "The vegetables are crunchier and taste better than market produce," he says. "Plus, it needs very little maintenance."

Shashank supports his students for a full year after training, helping them gain confidence to maintain their systems independently. His goal goes beyond individual gardens.

"I wanted to demonstrate that urban people can grow vegetables every day," he explains. "We don't have to depend on produce grown in questionable conditions."

His former corporate background shows in his systematic approach: three hours teaching plant varieties, three hours on system implementation. Students learn to create closed-loop ecosystems that produce fresh food with minimal space and water.

What started as one engineer's concern about food safety has become a movement helping city residents reclaim control over what they eat.