Integrated fish-horticulture farming in India

by S.D.Tripathi and B.K. Sharma

Integration of fruit and vegetable farming on the fishpond embankment has been tested in India, and has several advantages:

• The farmer gets additional income from growing fruits and vegetables on the pond embankment that 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.

Fish-crop farming material flow

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 fish 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 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 urea (for 1 000 m2 pond). Bleaching powder may be applied one day after urea application. Application of 250 kg Mahua oil cake (Basia latifolia) 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 aquatic weeds). Apply 500 kg basally; the rest (500 kg) may be applied in two equal installments at 4 months interval but more frequent doses (e.g. fortnightly) are better.

Stock the pond with fingerlings 7 days after poisoning as the toxicity of bleaching powder lasts for about 1 week. The recommended rates (at stocking density of 600/ 1 000 m²) are:

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

Harvesting

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

Calendar of activities for fish-horticulture farming

Horticulture

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 at 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. The farmer consumes a portion of the harvested fruits and the rest are sold in the market.

The vegetable crops are grown and harvested twice in a year--once during August/September and another in March/April. After meeting the requirements of the farm family, the vegetables are sold. Below is a list of some crops that can be grown on the pond embankment:

Fruit plants
Papaya
Banana
Coconut
Vegetable plants
Brinjal
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Tomato
Cucumber
Pumpkin
Ashgourd
Bottle gourd
Radish
Beans
Cowpea
Okra
Colocasia
and other leafy vegetables

Cash flow for integrated fish-horticulture farming for a 0.1 ha pond