The FISH 2018 Annual Report > Reduced Poverty
Research underlines livelihood potential of rice-fish farming
In Papat village, the rice field of Kyi Kyi Than and her husband Aung Kyaw looks the same as those of their neighbors, except for one difference: they grow fish as well.
“I don’t need to buy vegetables and fish any longer, because I grow my own vegetables. And if my family wants to eat fish, I just go and get the fish from the farm,” says Kyi Kyi of their integrated rice field and fish pond. “Before, if we had to buy the vegetables and fish in the market, we would only eat it ten times per month. But now our six-person family can eat them more than 20 times per month.”
Rice farming in Myanmar covers approximately 8 million hectares and involves more than 5 million households, most of them in rural areas. Since Myanmar’s independence in 1948, successive governments have focused on achieving rice self-sufficiency. This has led to strict agricultural policies that discourage farmers from integrating other crops into their rice fields or converting a proportion for fish farming. To do so, farmers have to get permission from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, which is typically reluctant to allow the transformation of paddy to pond.
A rice-fish system is a rice field with a fish refuge area (between 10 and 15 percent of the total plot size) with water ten times the depth of the rice-growing zone (1.5 meters versus 0.15 meters). Fish fingerlings, often rohu carp and silver barb, are added to the refuge area. In addition, wild fish are encouraged, and many of these are self-recruiting species that breed in the rice-field environment. Here, both stocked and wild fish are more abundant. The wild fish breed and establish a small rice-fish ecosystem. The fish swim into the rice production area, eat pests and fertilize the soil with their feces.
The concern for the Myanmar Government is that rice yields will be lost if large areas are transformed into ponds. However, our research with partners showed that when the rice cultivation area is reduced by 13 percent to accommodate a fish refuge area, rice production increases by 6 percent. Net profit also increases 132 percent because of the fish factor.
These results, from small experimental plots, are likewise found in full-size commercial systems with integrated agriculture systems. Using better management practices for rice, fish and water are shown to increase rice yield, profitability, employment options for youth and women and family nutrition because of greater fish consumption.
