Indian integrated fish-horticulture vegetable farming

Fish crop farming material flow

Integration of fault plants and vegetable farming on the fish pond embankment has been tested in India and has several advantages:

· The farmer gets additional income from growing fruits and vegetables on the pond embankment which normally lies fallow.

· The nutrient-rich pond mud is used as fertilizer for growing crops, eliminating the cost of organic manures.

· Manured pond water is used for irrigation of plants.

· Fruit and vegetable residues are used as feed for the fish.

· The plants on the embankment strengthen the dikes.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SYSTEM

Select ponds near to your house. This helps in easy management of the pond and in discouraging poachers.

Check and repair the dikes and guard the inlets and outlets with meshed screens to avoid escape of stocked fishes and entry of unwanted fish. The pond should be deep enough so that it retains more than 1 m water during the dry period.

Strengthen the dikes and terrace them for planting crops and fruit plants.

Fish culture

POND PREPARATION

Remove aquatic weeds. Compost and use them later as manure for the pond. Remove all the existing fish stock from the pond by repeated netting and draining the pond water. If it is not possible to drain the pond, kill the fishes by adding to the water 15 kg bleaching powder and 15 kg of urea (for 1000 sq m pond). Bleaching powder may be applied one day after urea application. Application of 250 kg Mahua oil cake (Basia latifolla) can also be done for the eradication of fish. Mix it thoroughly with the pond water and net all the fishes.

Manure the pond with the compost (made out of the aquatic weeds). Apply 500 kg basally; the rest (500 kg) may be applied in two equal installments at 4 months interval.

Stock the pond with fingerlings 7 days after poisoning as the toxicity of bleaching powder lasts for about one week. The recommended rates (at stocking density of 600/1000 sq m) are:

Some alterations can be made on the stocking density and species ratio depending upon the pond conditions and availability of fish seed.

Calendar of activities for fish-horticulture farming

HARVESTING

The fish which attain marketable size should be harvested and the rest allowed to grow further. Final harvesting may be done 10-12 months after stocking.

CROP FARMING

The dikes are strengthened, terraced, prepared and fertilized by application of pond silt

Bananas, papayas, pumpkins, gourds, spinach, Brinjals, tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy vegetables are grown on the dikes.

Inorganic fertilizer is also applied to the plants in addition to pond silt @10 kg/year divided into installments.

Water the crops with manure pond water.

Planting of papaya is done in June/July and banana in October/November and harvesting starts after 6 and 8 months following planting, respectively. A portion of the harvested fruits is consumed by the farmer and the rest are sold in the market.

The vegetable crops are grown and harvested twice in a year—once during August/September and the second time in March/April. After meeting the requirements of the farm family, the vegetables are sold. The list of vegetables and horticultural crops grown on the pond embankments is given below.

Fruit Plants

Papaya
Banana
Coconut

Vegetable Plants

Brinjal
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Tomato
Cucumber
Pumpkin
Ashgourd
Bottle gourd
Radish
Beans
Cowpea
Ladies fingers
Colocasia and
other leafy vegetables

Crop farming

Rupee budget for fish-horticulture vegetable in 0.1 ha. Pond.

Cash flow for integrated fish-horticulture-crop farming for 0.1 ha. Pond.

* Cash inflow starts from the month of November, when the harvesting of vegetable is initiated.

** Cash inflow goes up to Rs 1075 in the month of March, when partial harvesting of fish is also done.

*** Cash inflow includes harvesting of second crop of vegetables from April to July.

Prepared by: S.D. TRIPATHI & B.K. SHARMA

FARMER-PROVEN INTEGRATED AGRICULTURE-AQUACULTURE:
A TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION KIT (IIRR-ICLARM)