Customer Showcase # 125

About: We are finalists in the Andy Thomas Space Foundation Challenge and our project is based around using space technology to develop a food industry for the remote Indonesian village of Mangaran. We chose the Mr Stacky Smart Farm Hydroponic Tower Gardens for our experiments as they are quick to set up, look good and we could set them up on our classroom balcony (our school is rebuilding the courtyard and we have no land!). We chose them to help develop a system for Mangaran. We will find the best combinations of growing conditions and plants to use, then we will help them to develop a system. We would be overjoyed to send a tower to the school in Mangaran for them to use . The villagers have limited space to grow food and no export industries. Their rainforests are under threat from palm oil plantations and we are trying to find an alternative industry for them, most likely based on selling Chilli to nearby islands.

One of the photos shows our students draining the first flush of the system. Unfortunately, there is no drain or hose near our system which is on the second story balcony. Our creative students worked out how to drain the tanks into a hose that flowed into a bucket on the ground floor. They then set up a bucket brigade to the nearest tap and drain, 200m away.