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Prospects of rice-fish farming system for low lying areas in Bihar, India

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Abstract

An attempt has been made to explore the potentiality of organic integrated rice-fish farming from seasonally waterlogged areas for overall improvement of water productivity of the system. Two separate experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, five paddy fields (0.1 ha) of uniform topography were selected where center 10% area has been used as a fish refuge (1.2 m depth). MTU 7029 rice variety were transplanted in the already prepared field and a total of 50 numbers (25 each) of stunted Rohu (Labeo rohita) (104.7 ± 2.65 g) and Catla (Catla catla) yearling (95.1 ± 3.22 g) were stocked in the refuge area. Rice was harvested after 120 days and net fish production was recorded after the culture period of 180 days. At the end of 5 months, Rohu attained growth of 545.1 ± 24 g and Catla 589.5 ± 42.6 g. Average productivity of five fish refuges was 1.70 t ha−1 of fish and recovery was around 78%. In the experiment 2, using the same plot with a varying stocking density and size of fish and with MTU 7029 rice variety, average production of paddy straw and grain from 1-ha area were 6.73 and 4.36%, higher than controls (without fish stocking), respectively. Overall income from this integration was 72.21 thousand rupees which are around 26% higher than the income from control (57.28 thousand rupees). From the study, it can be summarized that organic rice-fish integration can be a viable technique, especially for low lying areas compared to rice monoculture.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna for providing necessary facilities to successfully conduct the experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Livestock and Fisheries Management, ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, ICAR Parishar, Bihar Veterinary College, Patna, Bihar, 800014, India

    A. Dey, Kamal Sarma, Ujjwal Kumar, Snatashree Mohanty, Tarkeshwar Kumar & B. P. Bhatt

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  1. A. Dey
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  2. Kamal Sarma
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  3. Ujjwal Kumar
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  4. Snatashree Mohanty
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Correspondence to Kamal Sarma.

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Dey, A., Sarma, K., Kumar, U. et al. Prospects of rice-fish farming system for low lying areas in Bihar, India. Org. Agr. 9, 99–106 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-017-0204-8

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