Summary
Fish culture in rice fields is an almost ideal method of land use, combining the production of both vegetal and animal proteins. Its development can make an important contribution to the future world food supply.
There are two main types of exploitation. In the captural system, wild fish are admitted in the field with the irrigation water. In the cultural systems, chosen fish species are deliberately stocked and raised either together with the rice (rizipisciculture) or in rotation with it, the field then becoming a shallow fish pond.
Widespread over the world, fish culture in rice fields is mainly concentrated in South East Asia where it has been known for centuries. In the United States of America, it has recently evolved both as a soil reclamation and a conservation scheme. In Europe, rice is more and more raised without fish for economic and technological reasons. In Madagascar on the contrary, very encouraging results have been obtained in the last decade among populations which have previously had experience with rice culture and irrigation. In the rest of Africa, it is still in the experimental stage. The necessity has not yet arisen for a more intensive use of wet rice areas but the existence there of a great potential has been fully demonstrated.
The most suitable fish to be raised in rice fields have been found to beC. carpio L. andT. mossambica Pet. In the USA, a buffalo fish and a catfish have been more suitable. In Africa, T. melanopleura Dum. should become more popular in the future.
Fish can greatly contribute to the control of algae and weeds, snails (bilharzia transmitters), and mosquitoes (malaria) where proper rice and fish cultural methods are applied.
Apart from those resulting from sanitary improvements, there are many other advantages of raising fish in rice fields. One of the main disadvantages of rizipisciculture is that rice and fish are tied together. None of them can be managed the most efficiently. It may be foreseen that in the future fish will be increasingly cultivated in rotation with rice and that rizipisciculture will gradually be abandoned at least wherever agricultural economic progress takes place.
A world wide survey is then presented to introduce the reader to the various cultural techniques which have been developed for raising fish in rice fields.
Résumé
La pisciculture en rizières, combinant la production de protéines végétales et animales, constitue une méthode quási Wale d'utilisation des terres. Son expansion pourrait grandement contribuer, dans le futur, à l'alimentation du Monde.
Il a deux principaux types d'exploitation. Dans le système de capture, les poissons sauvages colonisent librement les rizières lors de leur irrigation. Dans les systèmes de culture, des espèces piscicoles choisies sont délibérément introduites et sont élevées soit concurremment avec le riz (rizipisciculture), soit en rotation avec ce dernier, la rizière devenant alors un étang peu profond.
La pisciculture en rizière est largement répandue dans le sud-est asiatique, où elle est pratiquée depuis plusieurs siècles. Aux Etats-Unis, elle s'est récemment déveoppée en temps que méthode, à la fois, de mise en valeur de terres boisées incultes et de conservation des sols sous culture. En Europe, pour des raisons économiques et technologiques, la rizipisciculture est de plus en plus délaissée. A Madagascar, au contraire, de très encourageants résultats ont été obtenus au cours de la dernière décade, parmi des populations expérimentées dans la culture irriguée du riz. Dans le reste de l'Afrique, l'on en est encore au stade expérimental. Le besoin ne s' est pas encore fait sentir d'utiliser plus intensivement les rizières irriguées. Mais il a été bien démontré qu'il existe là un grand potentiel.
Les deux espèces piscicoles les plus couramment élevées en rizières sont la carpe commune etTilapia mossambica. Aux Etats-Unis cependant, un poisson buflle et un poisson chat se sont révélés les plus adéquats. En Afrique, T. melanopleura deviendra probablement plus populaire dans le futur.
Si les méthodes de culture du riz et de pisciculture sont adéquates, les poissons peuvent grandement contribuer au contrôle des plantes adventices, des mollusques et des moustiques. En plus des avantages inhérant a l'amélioration sanitaire du milieu, beaucoup d'autres avantages résultent de l'élevage de poissons en rizières. L'un des principaux désavantages de la rizipisciculture consiste dans l'impossibilité de donner à chaque type de culture les soins les plus efficients d'aménagement. L'on peut prédire que la pisciculture sera pratiquée de plus en plus en rotation avec le riz, la rizipisciculture étant graduellement abandonnée, du moins dans les régions à économie agricole progressive.
Le lecteur est ensuite introduit aux diverses techniques culturales développées dans le monde en vue de produire du poisson en rizières.
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Ph. D. Fisheries Biology, Oregon State.
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Coche, A.G. Fish culture in rice fields a world-wide synthesis. Hydrobiologia 30, 1–44 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135009
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00135009