ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF COMMUNITY-BASED FISH CULTURE IN SEASONALLY FLOODED RICE FIELDS IN BANGLADESH AND VIETNAM

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the rainy season in extensive river floodplains and deltaic lowlands, floods lasting several months render the land unavailable for crop production for several months each year. These waters are considerably underutilized in terms of managed aquatic productivity. This raises the opportunity to enclose parts of these annually occurring floodwater areas to produce a crop of specifically stocked aquatic organisms aside from the naturally occurring 'wild' species that are traditionally fished and are not affected by the culture activity, overall resulting in more high-quality, nutrient-dense food production and enhanced farm income for all stakeholders, notably the poor. The WorldFish Center and its national partners recently tested two systems in a community based management approach in Bangladesh and Vietnam: (i) concurrent rice-fish culture in shallower flooded areas, and (ii) alternating rice and fish culture in the deep-flooded areas. Results indicate that community-based fish culture in rice fields is technically feasible, economically viable and socially acceptable. It can increase fish production to about 600 kg/ha/year in shallow flooded areas and up to 1.5 t/ha/year in deep-flooded areas, without reduction in rice yield and wild fish catch. For the overall system and in the trials conducted, an additional income of US$135 per ha in southern Vietnam, and up to US$437 per ha in Bangladesh were achieved, which is an increase of 20%to 85% over the previous profitability. The communities neighboring the trial sites have been adopting the technologies widely. Keywords: community-based managementfloodplain agriculturerice-fish cultureeconomic feasibility ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A multipartner, multisite project such as this, involving action research at the local level, would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of many people. Foremost we wish to thank the communities in Bangladesh and Vietnam who willingly cooperated in this project over several years and from whom many insights were gained. We are grateful to our colleagues of the project partner institutes who were involved in the field work: in Bangladesh at the Fisheries Research Institute, Director General Dr. M. A. Mazid, who served as National Project Director, and at Proshika Mannobik Unnayan Kendra, Senior Coordinator, Fisheries Development Programme, Mr. M. A. Abdur Rahman; the Deputy Director for Programmes, Mr. M. Fazlul Huq; and the Director for Programmes, Mr. Qazi Khaze Alam; in Vietnam at the Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 1 in Hanoi, Directors Dr. Tran Mai Tien, Dr. Le Tanh Luu, and Mr. Bui Huy Cong; and at the Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 2 in Ho-Chi-Minh-City, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tinh and Mr. Nguyen Van Sang; and the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, Dr. D. Senadhira, who lost his life during a field trip in this project, and Dr. Mahabub Hossain. Funding for the project by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through TAG-350 is hereby gratefully acknowledged, as well as support by Mr. Ferdinand Paraguas of the WorldFish Center in Penang for data analysis. Staff of the WorldFish Center's South Asia regional office in Dhaka provided crucial logistical and administrative support. This is WorldFish Center Contribution No. 1749. Notes Note: HYV = high-yielding variety, 'Boro', in dry season, irrigated; TDW = transplanted deepwater, 'Aman', in rainy season; MV = modern variety, L = local variety (often with elongation capacity). Source: Project field trials in Bangladesh (1998–2000). Source: Project field trials. Note:* = detailed data not collected. Source: Project field survey and monitoring. Note: *One crop of rice and two crops of fish; other groups had two crops of rice and one crop of fish. Source: Project field trials. Source: Project field trials. Note: Type 1: small area (< 5 ha), 30 to 60% perimeter need fence, minimal feeding. Type 2: small area (< 5 ha), less than 30% perimeter need fence, minimal feeding. Type 3: large area (10–20 ha), less than 30% perimeter need fence, moderate feeding. *Average of the two sites (Hien Khanh and Tan Khanh). Source: Project field trials. 1Two rice crops (rice in dry season and rice and fish in wet season) in concurrent system and one rice crop (in dry season) in alternating system. Source: Project field trials. 1Cost and return from two rice crops. 2Averages for 1998–2000. 31999. 1. Rice variety used in areas of shallow to moderate flooding depths, in which young plants tolerate total submergence of leaves for up to 10 (some varieties maximum 20) days, and after this period grow quickly and produce panicles. 2. Rice variety used in deepwater areas with longer flooding durations of up to 4 to 5 months in which the stems have the ability to elongate quickly, in response to increasing flooding depth. 3. "Community based" is a term used in this study for "institutional arrangements" established at local level for the specific purpose of this technology implementation and duration of one season. 4. In addition, a small exploratory trial (with only one farmer) was conducted in the Tien Giang province of southern Vietnam in 1997. 5. Further details on technical feasibility, economic viability and social acceptability of the technology (i.e., community-based fish culture in seasonally flooded rice fields) are provided in Dey and Prein (Citation2000 Citation2003 Citation2005), Dey et al. (Citation2005), Prein and Dey (Citation2001, 2003), and WorldFish Center (Citation2004). Two separate papers specifically focusing on biotechnical and ecological issues are forthcoming in Hydrobiologia and Plant Production Science (Dey and Prein, Citation2005; Prein et al., Citation2005) 6. Tien Giang is a neighboring province of Dong Thap province, southern Vietnam, where the technical options were tested during 1998–2000. 7. Socially harmonious groups, which can often have a longer local residence history together, even if of different cultural/religious background. 8. The results of the baseline surveys and impact assessment are not within the scope of this paper. Detailed information on these (baseline surveys and impact assessment) and other project activities are available in WorldFish Center (Citation2004) and Dey et al. (Citation2005). 9. Rice followed by fish (cultured and wild) and fish (culture and wild) in between two rice crops were practiced under the alternating rice fish system in Bangladesh and southern Vietnam, respectively. While rice followed by rice and fish (cultured and wild) was practiced under the concurrent rice-fish system in Bangladesh and northern Vietnam. Rice and fish were the only two crops produced in the experimental and control plots in the study areas. 10. In each site, natural or existing artificial elevated lands (e.g., raised homesteads, dams for roads, train tracks, etc) enclose the rice field to a varying degree (sometimes up to three sides) and a fence is used to close the remaining sides. 11. Lightfoot et al. (Citation1992b) have reported that increases of 10–20% can be expected in rice yields when fish are cultured in ricefields.