Maa-Bara Aquaponics

Maa-Bara

Maa-Bara Aquaponics

Contact Solution Provider

Ogheneruno Okiomah
Maa-Bara
Hampton, VA
United States
rokiomah@alum.mit.edu

Solution Overview & Benefits

Maa-Bara is a minimal-waste closed-loop sustainable agricultural model that utilizes kitchen scraps to grow healthy, fresh fish and vegetables. The Maa-Bara system increases food security by boosting the productivity of small-holder farmers allowing families to grow their own food at a quantity and quality they desire in almost any location and in places where food has never been grown before. We are developing low-tech, low-cost kits for the developing world.

History & Development

Ogheneruno Okiomah, LEED AP, is a Nigerian-American designer, social-entrepreneur and architectural educator. Her research interests lie at the nexus of sustainable design and economic development. Ogheneruno is the CEO and Co-Founder of Maa-Bara, LLC, a social enterprise focused on growing a youth culture of agro-innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In her award-winning MIT thesis, “Maa-Bara: Catalyzing Change in Nigeria’s Niger Delta,” she collaborated with an oil-polluted fishing community and an oil company to create a mutually beneficial vision for a thriving agro-producing hub. Ogheneruno’s research received the MIT Schlossman Travel Grant (2010), MIT Architecture Department Thesis Archiving Honor (2010), SA+P Ralph Adams Cram Thesis Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Research (2012) and ACSA ARCHIVE 100: Being Resourceful Competition, Honorable Mention (2011). With her co-founders Elisha Goodman and Timo Lassak, she has grown the thesis into a start-up called Maa-Bara, LLC. They equip African youths with entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and technology to convert kitchen waste into food through low-tech and locally sourced aquaponics technology- (growing fish and vegetables symbiotically).

Further information is available at http://maabara.com

Availability

Publicly available: yes
Countries where available: Kenya, Nigeria, Germany, United States
Price range (USD): Contact supplier for quote

Additional Information