Will integrated rice and fish farming help achieve Sustainable Development
Goals in farming?
Over the last fifty years, revolutionary transformations in agriculture and aquaculture
have primarily relied upon intensified monoculture. However, sustainable
intensification is the need of the hour. It is crucial to address the ever-increasing
pressure on food and the environment with agroecological approaches – Integrated
rice and fish farming is one of them. Rice-fish production practices (RFPPs) are those
where rice cultivation takes place while allowing the simultaneous or rotational
presence of naturally occurring fish and other aquatic species harvested through
fisheries and introduced fish populations that are cultured (FAO, 2014). This approach
increases rice and fish production for achieving a transformation towards food
systems with more inclusive, nutrition-sensitive, and ecologically sound outcomes.
Rice-Fish culture is an ancient practice that first started in China about 2000 years
ago. Over time, this practice was introduced in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, India,
and many other countries worldwide.
RFPP can be of two different forms - concurrent culture and alternating culture. When
rice and fish are cultivated simultaneously in the same area, it is called concurrent
culture. On the other hand, when the rice and fish production cycle is sequential, it is
called alternating culture. Both concurrent and alternating cultures can take place
within the same rice plot with either an extended growing season for fish beyond the
rice harvest or multiple varieties of fish with fewer crops of rice.
The cultivation of rice emits a large volume of greenhouse gases (GHG), the two
major GHGs being methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). Methane emission
depends on the anaerobic degradation of organic complexes under submerged
conditions. The fact that 10–20% of the methane in the atmosphere originates from
paddy fields is significant since methane has a 25-fold greater Global Warming
Potential (GWP) than carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). The aquatic creatures will disturb the soil
layers and increase the diluted oxygen in the field water and soil. This would shift
anaerobic digestion to aerobic digestion and help reduce methane emissions. Hence,
the approach of rice-fish co-culture would not only increase agricultural output, but
also lessen environmental deterioration, and improve farmers' quality of life.
Despite significant differences in the types of production techniques and their scope,
rice and fish production are typically combined within the same physical, temporal,
and social spaces. RFPP constitutes a unique agro-landscape worldwide, especially in
tropical and sub-tropical Asia. It is no longer an agro-production practice but an agro-
culture pattern. Co-culture of rice and fish production in paddy rice systems has been
proposed as a technique to maximise land and water resources to provide grain and
animal protein. However, RFPPs are not the only agro-ecological alternatives to rice
monoculture. Other alternatives include the ecologically engineered farm design,
which can enhance biodiversity and ecosystem function, and alternate wetting and
drying can reduce water and input use in irrigated systems.
The rice-fish approach effectively revives soil fertility and prevents soil degradation,
which is a significant global environmental problem. Being a low-input system, it only
needs a modest amount of pesticide and fertiliser. Additionally, it fixes atmospheric
nitrogen while reducing the usage of agrochemicals. According to the system's
economic component, farmers are now more economically efficient due to its
adoption. Through this strategy, the aquaculture industry is socially linked to the
agricultural sector in a way that is not conceivable with monoculture. This co-culture
program will hence provide a platform for farmers to find new ideas and share their
knowledge and experience to develop a sustainable system of farming and
aquaculture.
RFPPs can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2.3, 2.4, and
12.4, which are as follows:
SDG 2.3: To double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food
producers, in particular women, indigenous people, family farmers, pastoralists and
fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources
and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value
addition and non-farm employment.
SDG 2.4: To ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient
agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain
ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme
weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and
soil quality.
SDG 12.4: To achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all
wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international
frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water, and soil in order to
minimise their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.