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Rice-aquatic animal integrated system: Effective method for sustainable food production
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Sajjad Shaker Kouhi1 *   , Mohammad Rabiee1 |
| Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Rice Research Institute, Rasht, Iran , sajjadshaker53@gmail.com |
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Abstract: (36 Views) |
Introduction: As the world population grows, demand for food will increase dramatically. Rice and aquatic animals are critical to global food security because provides the staple food for more than half of the world’s population. Common practices used to maximize production, while high cost, negatively impact human health and environmental conditions. The rice-aquatic animal integrated system in paddy fields is an effective strategy to enhance resource utilization and develop ecological agriculture. This system combines rice planting and aquatic animal raising in paddy fields, building an integrated agroecosystem with high species diversity for food production and environmental protection. Hence, this study explores the advantages and limitations of rice-aquatic animal integrated systems with focusing on its impact on sustainable food production in the paddy field ecosystem.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a descriptive review conducted in 2025. To conduct this study, the databases of SID, Google Scholar, Springer, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, PubMed, ResearchGate, Scopus and Elsevier were searched from 2000 to 2024 using the keywords rice, aquatic animal, integrated system, co-culture, rice–fish, rice–duck, rice–crayfish and their Persian equivalent.
Results and Discussion: The results indicated that rice plants provide a beneficial environment for aquatic animals, leading to high animal activities in the paddy field. Aquatic animals act as ecological engineers that affect soil conditions, which favor the growth of rice plants. Also, aquatic animals promote nutrient cycling, which enhances nutrient-use efficiency in the co-culture. Overall, rice-aquatic animal integrated system provided many social, economic and ecological benefits such as increase rice yield and quality, increase production of aquatic animals, reduce aquatic animal feed inputs, biological control of pests, diseases and weeds, improve soil fertility and water quality, enhance employment and income for villagers and sustainability of food production in paddy field ecosystem. In addition, the decrease in pesticides and fertilizers in this system could help in environmental conservation and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (CH4 and N2O).
Conclusion: Rice-aquatic animal integrated system provides more benefits than a monoculture system. Integrated system can improve farm production, farm income, and utilization efficiency of land and water resources. However, this system is vulnerable to climatic changes such as drought and floods, which requires proper policy framework to minimize the vulnerability. Furthermore, the adoption of these systems has been constrained by the lack of extension programs, lack of initial funding and insufficient expertise and knowledge. Therefore, a coherent extension program, with support from the government and non-governmental organizations, is needed to achieve the adoption and development of the rice-aquatic animal integrated systems. |
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| Keywords: Fish, Food security, Greenhouse gases, integrated system, Rice |
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Type of Study: Applicable |
Subject:
Special
Received: 2025/01/26 | Accepted: 2025/02/11
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