There is sand as far as the eye can see and daily temperatures soar to about 50 degrees.

On the face of it, is is probably not the ideal spot to establish a fish and vegetable farm. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 41 seconds 3 m 41 s Listen Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Paul Van der Werf speaks about a large-scale aquaponics farm in the United Arab Emirates Download 6.8 MB

But this is the United Arab Emirates, a country where water is scare and so is locally grown food.

Some developers are trying to change that.

Over the years various companies have come up with ways to breed fish and use their waste water as fertiliser on vegetable crops.

In late 2013 aquaponics consultant Paul Van der Werf, from Queensland's Earthan Group, was invited to the UAE to build one of the world's biggest aquaponics systems.

The farm, now completed, consists of a 4,500 square metre shed which produces around 40 tonnes of tilapia.

The facility is also piloting a breeding program for juvenile barramundi.

Waste water from a nearby food manufacturer, which is normally dumped in the desert, fills the fish tanks.

"We've got recirculating aquaculture," Mr Van der Werf said.

"So it (the water) goes round and round, through filtration back to the fish and then we take all of their waste and move that waste out, it's good for the fish.

"We biologically inoculate, so we aerate it and make it safe to use.

"We use that to circulate out onto a big 1 million litre floating raft, where we grow plants."

It is literally a massive floating salad on styrofoam.

The aquaponics system can grow a range of leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Without evaporative cooling, temperatures in the greenhouse reach 68 degrees.

Mr Van der Werf, who is also the president of the NSW Aquaculture Association, said farmers in Australia were successfully integrating similar aquaponics principles.

"A lot of farmers will diversify crops, it might be lettuce and then get an additional cash crop," he said.

"Which is handy on an aquaculture farm when you're waiting 12 to 15 months for a crop to come out."