Runner Up : Aquayom Aquaponics project from students of John Kennedy College

The students of the John Kennedy College bagged the Runner Award for their Aquayom Aquaponics project. “In all honesty, it is a rather bittersweet feeling. Receiving the Runner Up award is mildly disappointing for many of our members, but not entirely demoralizing. On one hand, we keep thinking that we were just so close from the 1st prize, but on the other hand, we do feel immensely grateful and appreciative for all the experiences we have learned,” they said.

Team member Hicham Khamlichi explains that the company’s choice of Aquaponics as a concept stemmed “firstly, from our desire to make consumers aware of the numerous advantages that this concept has. Aquaponics is a game-changer in agriculture - it saves water and uses no pesticides, petrochemicals or herbicides, it is affordable and it can be implemented anywhere. Secondly, since our company evolves in the context of a competition, opting for Aquaponics gave us a competitive edge and was absolutely innovative on the domestic market.”

The “Aquapot”, as the team explains, “is somewhat the brainchild idea of two members of the Aquayom Aquaponics mini company, namely William Gungadoo and Shivam Joya. These two wanted to grow plants without wastage of water or any need for soil itself. This subsequently led them to engage into Aquaponics - which is the combination of aquaculture (raising of fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system.”

What have they learned from that once in a life time opportunity? “On the personal level, we all have acquired a better sense of responsibility, confidence, new sets of skills - like in graphic design - and a general improved sense of leadership. The different managers of our company have learned how to deal with setbacks, delayed orders, production problems or even how to motivate whole departments, just to name a few.  Each member truly feels a sense of fulfillment. On the team level, we have learnt a lot, especially how to cooperate in a professional manner, delegate tasks, accept accountability, as well as trusting each other. Thanks to this competition and the formation of this company, we have forged stronger friendship bonds aamong all members. From an entrepreneurial point of view, it could be said that we learnt the basics of how any company works. This program helped us in gaining a better understanding of how organizations work and improved resource management capabilities, communications skills, problem solving or time management,” said the team members.