Food demand re-ignites look into integrated farm systems

The 2,400-year-old Chinese innovation of integrating fish, livestock and crop farming is sparking new interest as demand for more and better-quality food from larger populations shoves up prices -- and stokes political ferment.

Researcher centers, from University of Bologna in Italy to India's Council of Agricultural Research, are taking a second look "at revival of fish-rice cultivation for ecological and economic reasons," the Food and Agricultural Organization notes.

Integrated farming systems seek optimal use of land and water, while recycling livestock manure and crop residues. They now receive increased attention worldwide, the United Nations agency observes.

In Argentina, Brazil, Haiti, Panama and Peru, Louisiana in the US, Spain and Italy, the potential of shrimp, fish (tilapia) in rice fields is being studied intensively.

Rotational farming of rice and shrimps has a long history in the intertidal zones of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and other Asian countries," FAO's State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) recalls.

New findings on hefty gains from integrated systems are spurring scientists on. ICAR in New Delhi, for example, tracked a 12-fold boost in income "from integrated rice-fish systems, combined with vegetables or fruit crops, grown on bunds."

Nine out of every 10 hectares of the world's irrigated rice fields are in Asia. But varying fractions of this area are tapped for rice-fish or rice-shrimp production. They range from: negligible in the Philippine, 25,000 hectares in Thailand to 40,000 in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

"Rice-fish area and fish production, in China, have moved, from very low levels in the early 1980s, to over 1.2 million hectares in recent years," SOFA adds.

Growing at a compounded rate of 11 percent yearly, global aquaculture output now exceeds 34.7 million tons, valued at $46.5 billion. By 2010, output production could exceed 40 million tons.

"In many Asian countries, over one-half of animal protein comes from fish, in Africa, the production is 17.5 percent," FAO states.