Insect Damage Reduction while Maintaining Rice Yield in Duck-Rice Farming Compared with Mono Rice Farming

Abstract

Rice-duck farming was a traditional farming system in China and reintroduced to China's agricultural practice in recent years. We conducted an experiment to investigate whether rice-duck farming without pesticides can reduce pest damages on rice by comparing “without pesticide” and “with pesticide” in mono rice farming. The results showed that the leaves of rice damaged by pests or rice plants killed by pests were significantly lower in treatments of “rice-duck farming” and “with pesticide” than those in treatment “without pesticide,” but there were no significant differences between treatments of “rice-duck farming” and “with pesticide.” Numbers of filled grain per panicle, grain weight, and yield were significantly lower in “without pesticide” treatment than those in “with pesticide” or “rice-duck farming” treatments, but there were no significant differences between the treatments of “with pesticide” and “rice-duck farming.” The experiment suggested that ducks could replace pesticide use in terms of controlling pest damage without reducing rice yield in a rice-duck system.