An Ecosystem Approach to Wild Rice-Fish Cultivation

Abstract

Naturally grown wild rice (Zizania sp.) in freshwater lakes and streams with suitable biophysical conditions could provide opportunities for fish cultivation in different parts of the world, including North America. Many fish species prefer wild rice ecosystems for their habitat. Such natural aggregation could inspire wild rice-fish cultivation. Wild rice-fish integration could play a major role in maintaining ecosystems, including aeration of water, pest control, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, respiration, soil fertility, and water quality. Wild rice-fish cultivation would be an ecosystem approach due to the positive culture attributes in terms of environmental benefits. Human consumption of wild rice and fish would provide a complementary, healthy, nutritious, and low-fat diet, with rich in carbohydrate, protein, minerals, and vitamins. Ideally, wild rice-fish integration could provide a wide range of social, economic, and ecological advantages, including food production, human nutrition, livelihoods, income, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem services. Despite opportunities and potential benefits in North America, wild rice-fish culture has not yet been practiced. Empirical research with key stakeholders’ involvement need to address social, economic, and ecological challenges for wild rice-fish cultivation to increase food productivity and environmental sustainability.

Keywords:

• Wild rice
• fish
• aquaculture
• environment
• food production

Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Canada and the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Australia. The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization. We thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their insightful comments and helpful suggestions.

Notes

1 Although wild rice is known for the genus Zizania, the wild form of rice (Oryza) is also described as wild rice (Oelke 1993). Some species of Zizania are known as wild rice in North America, whereas Oryza rufipogon refers to wild rice in other regions of the world (Kellogg 2009). This article refers only to Zizania by the term wild rice.

2 Biogeographic analyses suggest that the North American origin of Zizania dispersed into eastern Asia through the Bering Land Bridge (Xu et al. 2010).

3 Freshwater lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands are unsalted closed, semi-closed or open water bodies with various sizes and water depths, and are fully or partly surrounded by land. Wild rice is naturally grown in shallow parts of these water bodies. In this article, freshwater lakes and rivers mean all of these water bodies.

4 Carbon sequestration is the removal of atmospheric CO₂ through biological (photosynthesis) process, which increase the carbon content of a reservoir other than the atmosphere.

5 Over 7890 ha and 26,033 ha of wild rice ecosystems exist in California and Minnesota, respectively (MNDNR 2008; White et al. 2016). According to Oelke et al. (1982), wild rice could be planted in 40,469 ha in Minnesota. Over 50,000 ha of rice fields could be suitable for rice-fish integration in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

6 Extensive production typically uses slightly modified versions of traditional methods with low-input (fish fry, feed, and labor) farming. Extensive farming relies on natural productivity, but locally available supplementary feeds are used in pond aquaculture.

7 Biochar is rich in carbon with stable and solid, which can endure in soil for thousands of years. Biochar has the potential to help mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration.