Aanant Aquaponics
About us
I, Peter Singh grew up on a farm in the Punjab , and in those days farming was all organic, there were no artificial fertilizers or pesticides. I then went on to boarding school in the hills and then to Delhi University, where I was eventually working towards a Phd. In Mathematics.
However, I realised that there was much more to do in life than research in mathematics and teach mathematics, so when we got married in 1973, I and my wife Neeno moved back to our ancestral farm in Punjab and experimented with diversification in agriculture instead of mono cropping.
We set up an orchard of peaches, plums, pears, and Kinnow, to have different fruits all the year round. On the boundaries we planted timber trees as a windbreak, which provided a source of income through sale of timber every few years, and interspersed the windbreak with beeflora trees and bushes to provide flowers for honeybees. We set up beekeeping with Apis mellifera on the farm. We intercropped the empty spaces in the orchard with seed crops like clover , pulses, oilseeds like mustard and sunflower, etc for the national seed corporation , which also provided a source of nectar for the bees, and we extracted single source honeys from the flowers.
In addition we set up a dairy farm, to provide compost for the orchard and also biogas for cooking in the farm. It was thus a biodiverse system of agriculture, where we also did green manuring in fallow months to regenerate the soil between crops. We set up beekeeping with Apis mellifera , did research on queen breeding and management and our organisation was the first such unit to be registered with the department of science and technology govt of India for R&D in beekeeping, bee breeding bee management.
We trained and set up farmers in beekeeping with the Italian honey bee , and bred bee colonies that produced over 80 kg of honey a year. We received a praman patra as a state award from the Punjab government in 1988 for the development of beekeeping in punjab. We also produced and marketed single source honeys like clover, orange blossom, sunflower eucalyptus and mountain blossom from the himalayas.
We set up an integrated unit that produced bee equipment, bred bees, provided training and bee colonies to farmers, packed honey for the domestic market and also produced value added products using honey and ayurvedic herbs, which we marketed in Delhi.
Our unit was the first one that exported single source honeys to the quality conscious markets of germany and USA and exported 2000 tons of honey annually. We set up and expanded beekeeping all over punjab, giving employment to small farmers, and increasing honey production from 300 tons to 3000 tons in 5 years, for which we received a state award from the punjab government a praman patra on independence day in 1998.
We were founder members of the National beekeeping development board and were resource persons for the ministry of agriculture and helped formulate policies for the development of beekeeping in India with the Italian honeybee Apis mellifera.
We wrote two books on the beekeeping and Honey Industry in India which were published by APEDA and are a part of their resource library.
We moved to Delhi in 1979 for our children's schooling and continued beekeeping in Punjab and marketing the honey in Delhi and eventually for export. In Delhi, we had a house with a large garden and grew our own vegetables, and some fruit and whatever we could not grow , we sourced from an organic farm outside Delhi. We ate organic and believed in living an organic sustainable lifestyle.
In 2015 we heard about aquaponics and started learning about it.
We first set up a trial unit in the garden of our house in Delhi.
After that we started the one in our son’s house in Goa.
We also up a unit for our daughter in Lucknow , where she has a large garden .
This unit and now the modified Delhi unit are primarily an experiment for ones that can be escalated to a unit for a farm or commercial Aquaponics on farms.
This concept was further developed by expanding both units in Delhi and Goa so as to provide an income from selling excess vegetables to the neighbourhoods
We continue experimenting with both units , so our story is continuing as one on developing and making more efficient these aquaponic and permaculture systems of growing food.
What we do
Live Sustainably
Green Environment
Ongoing Projects
My wife Neeno and I, Peter S Singh are showing by example and teaching others how to live sustainably by growing our own fish , vegetables, fruit, spices, in our home using Aquaponics and Permaculture compost your kitchen and garden waste and use it to grow food.
Green our homes and environment by growing fruit trees and Vegetable plants around the house. The plants climate control, remove air pollution, clean and oxygenate the air into the home.
We have two ongoing projects in the homes in Delhi and Goa where we are developing sustainable homes and a means of generating income.
Excellent Occupation
Online Courses And Workshops
Aquaponics is excellent occupation for senior citizens beneficial for their body and mind. We show systems in our home on counter tops, entrance to a home, inside rooms, on balconies, terraces, roof tops, along walls of a home, in gardens, as urban farms.
We conduct online courses and workshops on the above.
Our Gallery
Our Team
Propogating Sustainable Living, Green Environment, Grow your own Organic Fish, Vegetables and Fruit
Peter Singh
Founder, Agriculturist, Mathematician, Innovator
Neeno Kaur
Co-Founder, Plant lover and grower
Our Journey
We have been blessed by being 4 generations living together, my grandparents, parents, my wife and me and our two children.
I Peter Singh grew up on a farm , went to school and college then moved back to the farm with my wife Neeno and our children grew up there till they went to school, living a simple organic lifestyle on the farm, eating the vegetables, fruits, grains, oils , milk eggs, produced on the farm, honey from our beehives and game from the surrounding areas. No processed food , natural freshly prepared home cooked food.
The family moved to Delhi for the children’s education and I went back and forth from the farm , during the holidays they all came back to the farm.
There in Delhi we started growing some vegetables in our home, and farm grown fruit , vegetables, grain etc came from our farm.
In addition to biodiverse farming, we took up beekeeping and researched and worked on developing bee colonies for maximum production for which we got a state award of Praman Patra from the Punjab Government in 1988.
Our pioneering work on beekeeping and honey led to the Punjab government inviting us to set up a joint venture to propagate beekeeping in the state which was very successful and we set up 750 beekeepers in Punjab, exporting honey produced by them to USA and Germany.
Our exemplary work in developing the honey industry led to our getting another state award in 1998 of a praman patra on independence day from the Punjab State Government
In the city we couldn’t produce much food due to lack of space .
However, learning about Aquaponics in 2015 transformed our lives, as this enabled us to build sustainable homes in Delhi and our son's house in Goa, where our concept and passion for sustainable farming developed further enabling us to produce all the vegetables , fish, and some fruit and herbs for our home consumption.
We recycle Grey water to grow fruit trees, use water harvesting to conserve water and raise subsoil water levels and compost our kitchen and garden waste, so that no waste leaves the home, instead produces compost to feed the vegetables. All we do is feed the fish and grow our own food.
The greenhouses around the house green the environment and clean and filter the air entering the house.
We are now adding solar, wind and water power to generate electricity, and then atmospheric water generation to provide sustainable, off grid, green organic lifestyles wherever you live.
Our Aquaponic Unit in the Goa House got the first prize for an organic home vegetable garden for 4 years in the annual competition held by the Botanical Society Goa.
We received the first prize for our stall at the Aqua Goa Fest held by the Fisheries Department in February 2020
Part of our journey is that Neeno got Leukaemia due to the Delhi pollution and eventually had a bone marrow transplant in 2009. Because of our organic healthy lifestyle, she leads a normal active life since 2010.
We both take no artificial supplements, vitamins or have any processed food or drinks as there is no substitute for the nutrition from our home grown organic food freshly picked and prepared by us both and we are constructively engaged in actively working all day among our plants and fish and teaching others how they can do the same.
We now work on two different aspects of all this as two separate entities that combine together for building sustainable systems of farming and lifestyle.
Aanant Aquaponics is run and developed by Peter Singh who researches different aspects of agriculture for urban living and sustainable farms and develops the systems for that.
He works on developing aquaponic models for different situations like balconies, rooftops, terraces, gardens, open spaces and along walls of houses and farms.
Other aspects being developed are rain water harvesting , grey water recycling.
Future projects are integrating alternative energy sources like solar, wind and water power
Finally atmospheric water generation. So that eventually each unit will be off grid and self sustainable, generating food for the family and neighbourhood.
Aanant Organic farms is worked on and developed by Neeno as a model of sustainable organic agriculture, composting of kitchen and garden waste, permaculture combined with aquaponics, using additional nutrients from natural sources of food and agricultural by products to increase yields, experimenting with different open pollinated seeds and growing plants from nursery to harvest stage, and seed production of different varieties. Plus organic pest control and feeding organic nutrients for optimal plant growth and yields.
She also experiments with different recipes and styles of cooking to produce meals that are nutritious, tasty and baking our own sourdough bread and other foods. Extra produce is frozen to be available as and when needed.
Both units Aanant Aquaponics and Aanant Organic farms come together as
Aanant Aquaponic Organic Farms providing solutions for sustainable lifestyles.
This is the future of agriculture and of greening the cities to offset climate change and live healthy sustainable lives. Our mission is to show by example and teach others how to live sustainably with aquaponics and permaculture.
What do our customers say
Why our customers choose us?
Living on a farm, I was always very keen on agriculture and finding sustainable ways of farming. I stumbled upon Aquaponics and very soon I did an online course with Peter and Ninoo, who were highly recommended.
Adity Chakravarti