Rice-Fish Culture: a recipe for higher production

In South and Southeast Asia, rice farmers and their families are often the poorest of the poor. Due to deforestation, many can no longer rely on the bounty of forest and stream to supplement their rice fields. Although self-sufficiency in food is of paramount importance, many small farmers cannot grow enough to sustain themselves all year. One or two bad harvests, or illness, can plunge a family into debts it can never hope to repay. Raising fish offers a solution to these problems, contributing income and food.

Rice fields provide a natural habitat for fish during the rainy season when fields are flooded. They are ideal for rearing fish. Many poor rice farmers live in Bangladesh and the Mekong River Basin in Indo-China, which are among the most densely populations regions on the continent.

WorldFish and partner institutions are helping farmers in these regions increase food production through community-based fisheries management schemes -- or CBFM for short. Such efforts let local people participate actively in farm management, resource distribution and so on. They are genuine partners, making decisions with help and support from WorldFish and partner organizations, which also help the farmers identify problems and new ways to tackle them. In this way, farms are managed in a more efficient, equitable and sustainable way.

Raising fish in rice fields is very effective in raising the productivity and efficiency of farms. Fish wastes and the extra feed given to fish, including vegetable waste and rice bran, increase the amount of organic fertilizer in the field. As a result, farmers need less chemical fertilizer, leading to an improved environment. There is also less use of pesticides and insecticides, as fish can play a significant role in controlling many pests and diseases of rice. They eat weeds and algae that carry diseases, act as hosts for pests and compete with rice for nutrients. There is thus also less need for weeding and plowing. Fish also feed on flies and other small insects.

Farmers practicing rice-field culture in Bangladesh have managed to reduce production costs by 10 per cent, and the average farm income has increased by 16 per cent in a mere three years, buoyed by sales of fish fry and fingerlings as well as fish that farmers do not eat. Often, it is also because of better yield of rice. Rice yields have maintained or gone up, by 10 per cent. One hectare of rice field typically produces between 250 and 1,500 kilograms of fish.

In many cases in Bangladesh, the landless contribute their labor while the landowners contribute land and operating costs, ensuring income for all. And women have been among the greatest beneficiaries of the schemes. They take an active part in farming and the higher income gained from growing fish has raised their social status. Women agricultural laborers have even become landowning rice-fish farmers through careful planning and with the aid of small loans from WorldFish's non-governmental organization partners. The fish also provide valuable protein for them and their families.

Rice-fish culture has spread quickly in Bangladesh, partly through farmers learning the techniques of rearing fish from those who have benefited from the WorldFish program. WorldFish is encouraging this farmer-to-farmer approach.

This integrated system of farming has huge potential in Bangladesh . It can enable the country to produce an estimated 400,000 tonnes of fish a year worth US$300 million on 40,000 hectares f land.

In the Mekong delta in South Vietnam , one hectare of land producing just rice alone usually brings in a profit of less than US$1,000 a year. Raising fish in rice fields can help a farmer increase his or her profit by about 30 per cent, as studies by WorldFish's Vietnamese partner, the Research Institute of Aquaculture, show. A one-hectare pond can hold more than 3,000 fingerlings.

Fish is a major source of protein in Asia, supplying 46 per cent of the total animal protein in Bangladesh and as much as 75 per cent in Indo-China. In the floodplains of Bangladesh , 70 per cent of households catch fish for income or food. They are poor, largely landless and survive on less than 50 US cents a day. Fish is the major -- and often the only --source of animal protein for the poor in Asia .

WorldFish's rice-fish culture program, although involving simple and low-cost technology, represents a highly scientific approach to farming. It incorporates the combined wisdom of generations of Asian farmers with modern methods. Archaeological evidence indicates that rice-fish farming has been practiced in China since around AD 100. Chinese travelers and colonists probably brought it with them to Southeast Asia about 1,500 years ago. Rice and fish may have also shared fields in South Asia for the past few thousand years.