In Photos : Amazing Rice-fish farming in China, Indonesia Captivates Netizens

Rice-fish farming is a typical mode of eco-farming, in which rice provides shade and organic matter for fish, in turn, fish removes the weed, loosens the soil, improves fertility, provides oxygen and devours pests. This type of culture farming offers the best ecosystem benefits and sustainable development.

According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), rice-fish farming in China can be traced back over 2000 years. But in the 1960s and 1970s the Green Revolution swept through Asia, bringing with it more intensive rice farming using large amounts of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, all toxic to fish. Rice-fish farming collapsed.

The Qingtian County is located in the southeast of Zhejiang Province, China still using the traditional methods to raise fish in paddy rice field. 

The Chinese government revived it in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2007, with 1.5M hectares of rice-fish farm  where they was able to harvest 1.16 million tons of fish.

Today China gets more fish products from fish farming than from the sea, and rice-fish farming provides over one quarter of those fish. There’s more variety too. Traditional species like carp and tilapia have been joined by high-value species such as swamp eel, crawfish and freshwater shrimp.

Today, farmers from Africa, Indonesia, and Bangladesh are applying using the same techniques -keeping fish in the rice fields which increases yields up to 10% -plus more supplies of fish!


Source : MOA /FAO
Image Credits : Knowdledge.Alliance.com