Economic Viability of Aquaponics Across Global Climate Zones: A Meta‐Analytical Assessment

ABSTRACT Aquaponic systems are emerging as sustainable agricultural solutions that conserve water and recycle waste, enabling food cultivation in urban, rural, and arid regions. They are increasingly advocated across diverse contexts, yet adoption remains limited due to concerns about economic viability stemming from huge capital investment and low profitability. In this study, we employed a metadata analysis to assess the influence of climate zones and system configurations on the profitability of soilless systems. Our findings informed the development of a data‐based support tool—APECO—presented as a prototype that uses compiled metadata. Productivity in tropical climates (Aw and Am) was associated with lower energy and labor costs, which corresponded with comparatively better outcomes than temperate regions in terms of breakeven price, net return, and payback periods. However, these patterns should be interpreted with caution due to dataset imbalance, as approximately one‐third of studies were conducted in the Aw climate zone, while data from other zones were sparse. Profitability also appeared to vary between configurations, but the observed divergence between coupled (revenue‐linked) and decoupled (cost‐linked) aquaponics should be regarded as preliminary, given that only 9% of the dataset represented decoupled systems. Plant revenue and fish yield were most strongly associated with net returns across climates, suggesting that context‐specific productivity gains may play an essential role in shaping profitability. We introduced APECO as a proof‐of‐concept calculator designed to integrate system‐specific metadata with user inputs; however, as it has not yet been validated with real‐world data, its use should be regarded as illustrative, pending empirical validation.