Performance evaluation of integrated rice fish culture an ingenious agricultural heritage system

Abstract

Rice-fish farming system constitute a unique agro-landscape across the newlineworld, especially in tropical and sub-tropical Asia (Haroon and Pittman, newline1997) and is no longer a sole agro-production practice, but an agrocultural newlinepattern. Keeping in view, the outstanding contribution of rice-fish newlinefarming to food and livelihood security [Mirhaj et al,, 2014; Mirhaj et al., newline2013; Dey et al, 2013; Liangliang et al., 2013; Jian et al., 2011; Saikia et al,, newline2008), its importance in terms of biological diversity and genetic newlineresources, landscape diversity, aesthetic beauty, cultural values, other newlineecosystem goods and services and indigenous knowledge of land and newlinewater management, it has been listed by FAO and UNESCO as one of the newlineGlobally Important Ingenious Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). Rice, newlinethe dominant staple crop of tropical Asia with a long history of newlinedomestication, and has a rich diversity of cultivated ecotypes based on newlinethree varieties of Oryza sativa: indica, jcponica and javanica. There are newlinefour basic rice agro-ecosystems each with particular edaphic conditions: newlineirrigated ecosystem, upland and lowland rainfed ecosystem and flood newlineprone (deep water) ecosystem. Fish rearing in rice fields is a 2000-yearold newlineapparently successful practice, where fish are stocked with the aim of newlineincreasing and diversifying the rice field productivity and is probably the newlinemost promising alternative to rice mono cropping. Fish culture in this newlineecosystem is concurrent or rotational with rice carried out at four newline1 newlineintensities: traditional (capture), low intensity culture (without feed and newlinefertilizer), medium intensity (only fertilization) and high-density culture newline(with feed and fertilizer). newline