Credit: Ricardo Morales Rodriguez (Guatemala)
Description: Abdel Rahman El Gamal and Ricardo Morales Rodriguez
The aim of the project is to cultivate tilapia, a favorite fish in the country, in places where the cold weather does not allow for growth and reproduction and, therefore, limit productivity. The target of using solar energy in this project targeted to maintaining a temperature of an average of 28 degrees Celsius, and hence enabling higher growth and better productivity of tilapia to be allocated to the consumption of the low-income residents of the region as well as to help creating a local business within the community. Women beneficiaries have been highly targeted by the project. The concept of this project has been designed to be replicated in other cold regions both within and outside Guatemala.
This innovative pilot plant has been created in the Tzapineb village through the cooperation between the Centre for Marine Research and Aquaculture of Guatemala (CEMA) of the University of San Carlos De Guatemala (USAC), and the Universities of Cadiz (UCA) of Spain. The project received a budget of 250,000 euros from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain. The involvement of the social agency “Hope Town Association” (Ciudad Esperanza) has been significant through donating the land and providing water as required by the project.
The plan is to continue supporting the project financially for four years. Afterwards, the project will be the responsibility of the indigenous community in Guatemala.
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