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Our work Our outputs Themes News Partners Home | Seed Health Systems >>Irrigation >>Peri-urban Gender Markets Impact Assessment  Eden Live |
The Seed theme brings together knowledge on broodstock management, selective breeding and social aspects of seed production and delivery networks, particularly relating to juvenile fish production in rice fields
Outputs of the theme are central to events that took place at the Eden Project to celebrate International Year of Rice 2004. A permanent part of this is a rice-fish display in the Humid Tropic Biome on-site in Cornwall. AFGRP also presented a weekend of drama, music and play 26-30th August 2004. For more information click here.Projects of relevance here include:- Fish seed quality in Asia Improvement of carps for low input aquaculture in Asia To learn a bit more about the background to the Seed theme, have a quick read of the article below by Dave Little and Benoy Barman. Rethinking rice and fish in Asia - Benoy Barman and David Little Flood-prone Asia, where the annual monsoons turn huge areas wet under foot, is where rice is King. This aquatic grass is actually grown under a large range of conditions from soil that is merely damp to deeply flooded areas where rice grows at incredible rates to keep above the rising waters. Most rice is grown in bunded ‘paddy fields’ in which a few inches of water is retained for all or much of the growing period within soil embankments just a few inches high. This environment has shaped the way people live and their dependence on rice as their staple food grain but, less obviously, it has also meant that fish and other aquatic animals have also become key parts of the diet. Breeding and growing in and among the rice plants, fish, shrimp and snails have typically not figured in government statistics or even made it to markets. But as high quality foods they complement energy-rich rice perfectly and have sustained rural people throughout the region. People in Asia feel strongly about both rice and fish. The importance of ‘rice in the field and fish in the water’ still resonates with Thai people and the Vietnamese refer to them as ‘mother and child’. Indeed, it is often women and children that harvest a large variety of snails, crabs or other aquatic animals and plants in addition to fish from the rice fields to meet daily needs. Rice and fish continue to complement each other in peoples’ diets but increasingly fish have been lost from the rice fields, to the detriment of diets, broader livelihoods and the environment. Traditionally wild fish have been harvested from rice paddies, but introduction of high yielding rice and accompanying pesticides have reduced yields of fish and other aquatic animals. Increasing demand for land from a growing human population has also led to loss of suitable habitat and increased demand for both fish and water – leading to shortages of both. Traditional rice fields yielded modest amounts of rice but their high biodiversity probably acted to stabilize yields. Populations of fish controlled a variety of pests in rice fields and contributed to nutrient recycling and efficiency. High yielding varieties (HYV) of rice, and the management changes that accompanied their introduction, have led to gains in rice yields but have had unwelcome impacts on the hidden harvest of aquatic animals and on the environment. Most economic analysis of introducing HYV rice has simply ignored the value of aquatic animals forgone. Alternatives to unsustainable monocultures are urgently required. Fish as part of IPM A major challenge is sustaining or improving the biodiversity of rice fields while enjoying the benefits of new rice varieties and higher grain yields. In recent years research around Asia suggests that this win-win situation is possible - and fish has a major role to play. Producing fish in rice fields is a logical approach to stabilising rice yields and the livelihoods of rural people dependent on them. The potential for encouraging wild species and stocking fish as part of integrated pest management (IPM) in rice fields has been promoted for some time but now appears to gaining momentum in line with broader changes in society. The opportunity for fish culture to play an important and renewed role in rice production is partly the result of the very pressures on aquatic environments that have made the uptake of new high yielding rice varieties popular with farmers - that is a need to make land and water more productive. Reduced abundance of wild fish and high consumer demand has led to fish culture in ponds located in and around rice fields becoming much more common. In turn, cultured species of fish have become more available and affordable, even by the poorest of people who don’t have land or access to ponds to raise fish themselves. Generally though, the increased costs and risks of intensified rice and fish production mean that better off people are benefiting most, whilst poor people are losing the opportunity to utilise the declining by-catch of valuable un-stocked aquatic animals. Growing juvenile fish to improve the livelihoods of poor people Using rice fields to produce juvenile fish that can then be grown further in ponds is one approach that has been introduced to redress the balance and is now spreading fast among rice farmers in one corner of Bangladesh. Many of these people are too poor to own fish ponds themselves but can produce juvenile fish through simple modifications to irrigated rice fields, which can be sold on to pond owners. Additionally most of these rice growers retain some of their seed for growing at low density in a follow on rice crop. Households appear to be benefiting in several ways. Income and food availability is improved and the use of pesticides to control plant and animal pests is dramatically reduced. This is turn encourages un-stocked aquatic animals to thrive in rice fields and ponds. Promoters of the approach introduce the concepts through so-called ‘farmer field schools’ to groups within communities that promote self-help and learning through a better understanding of the ecology of their systems. Our research has found that once introduced the idea of producing fish juveniles in rice fields spread rapidly from farmer-to farmer, greatly reducing the costs of promoting the approach. Stocking and harvesting juvenile fish can double incomes compared to rice alone; such productivity gains are most important to farmers with little land. This type of diversification also appears to reduce risk, which is particularly important to the poor. Some of the poorest people, including those that do not own rice land, are benefiting. Even landless people benefit by leasing or sharecropping land owned by richer people and also by trading their own and neighbours’ seed. As the crop of juvenile fish is marketable over a period of some weeks, income is spread out over a longer period and before the rice is marketable. There appear to be few disadvantages provided farmers can apply the extra time required to maintain water levels and harvest the crop of fish when required. Farmers even report small increases in rice production levels, perhaps due to the fish reducing weeds and aerating the soil, and also less mosquito larvae. Maintaining rice fields as environments friendly to local species of fish, in addition to enhancing biodiversity, also makes financial sense. Less money is spent on pesticides and, as the value of many wild fish species is now rising faster than many cultured fish farmers have more choices when it comes to deciding on how to use their resources. Rethinking rice production through integration with juvenile fish production appears, unusually, to both have environmental benefits and favour poorer rather than better-off farmers. Moreover its rapid spread once introduced is testament to its relevance and simplicity. |
AFGRP is providing poor farmers with information to help them to improve their livelihoods. AFGRP works with a range of organisations to make aquaculture a viable, sustainable option, especially for the poor  |
| The Aquaculture and Fish Genetics Research Programme of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) is managed by the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Scotland. FK9 4LA. UK. Tel: +44 1786 467900 Fax: +44 1786 451462 e-mail: afgrp@stir.ac.uk | |||