Integrated Fish Farming for Nutritional Security in Eastern Himalayas, India

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the North Eastern Himalayan region of India to evaluate the productivity of different animal-fish integrations viz. duck-cum-fish, poultry-cum-fish, goat-cum-fish, pig-cum-fish, and cattle-cum-fish. Among various integrations, cattle-cum-fish had the maximum fish yield (2,686.0 kg/ha), followed by fish-cum-duck (2,173.0 kg/ha), fish-cum-pig (2,046.0 kg/ha), fish-cum-poultry (2,006.0 kg/ha), and fish-cum-goat (1,867.0 kg/ha) compared to 757.0 kg/ha in unfed/unfertilized control ponds. Among fish species, highest growth rate was recorded for silver carp (Hypopthalmichthys molitrix) in all the integrations (201.0 to 591.0 g/fish), followed by mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala, 160.0 to 370.0 g/fish). The implications of the results for development of suitable integrated agro-aquaculture models in humid tropics are discussed.

Keywords:

• integrated fish farming
• livestock
• birds
• composite fish culture
• productivity

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Government of India, New Delhi, for financial assistance in the form of a research grant.

Views expressed in this article are of the authors and not necessarily of the Institute.