Demonstration of Integrated Rice-Fish Culture under Bajo Research Conditions

AUTHOR: Dawa L Sherpa

ABSTRACT

Rice and fish go together as food in many parts of the world and so is in Bhutan. The synchronous system of fish cum rice culture is adopted for productive utilisation of land both for crop and fish production to supplement the income to the farmers. Pursuant to this view, two years experiment was carried out at Bajo, Wangdue to validate the information generated by fishery researchers afresh. The plots were renovated by excavating canals, pools or trenches to retain water. This would provide shelter to fish and stored water could be used for the irrigating crops. ‘I” shaped trenches were dug with depth of 80cm and width of 60 cm on top on both sides of the plots.

The two years experiment indicated that the growth rate of Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) was found to be much higher compared to Grass carp (Ctenopharyngondon idella). The first year results revealed that Common carp weight ranged between 170-410 gm compared to 30-80 gm only from that of Grass carp within a period of 90 days. In total, Common carp yielded 11.2 kg and 3.5 kg Grass carp. During the second year of experiment, the yearlings were reared instead of fingerlings. About 200 Common Carp and Grass Carp were released in the field. The fish were harvested at 110 days of growth period in the rice field. On the day of harvest 190 out of 200 Common Carp were counted which yielded 15 kg in total. Out of a total of 200 Grass Carp yearlings released only 60 were found available on the day of harvest. The total yield from Grass Carp was only 3 kg. Further it was noted that their growth rate was optimal and overall survivability was found to be quite good amongst the species. Some degree of predation was noticed by aquatic birds which was unavoidable. The fingerlings might have also escaped through the holes of the bunds made by insects and rodents especially during night time that ultimately contributed to over loss. However during the entire trial period no major mortality and diseases occurrences were observed.To validate existing information and draw suitable future recommendation, more research needs to be conducted on-farm.

KEYWORDS:

Rice fish culture, integrated, grass carp, common carp, feeding, yield, comparative

REFERENCES

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