Source: Schroeder, Gerald. 1986. Integrated fish farming: an international effort. Am. J. Altern. Agric. 1:127-130.

Gerald Schroeder, a senior research scientist and project leader at the Fish and Aquaculture Research Station in Hof HaCarmel, Israel, discusses the global importance of using integrated fish farming. He argues that integrated fish farming is both economically beneficial and of dietary benefit for many countries. Shroeder states that much of the Third World suffers from malnutrition because animal production is too expensive. He describes fish as "ruminants" because many species "thrive on the same types of microbes and microbial products as are found in the rumen." Shroeder then proposes that integrated fish farming be used with animal husbandry or with crop farming to convert plant fiber into fish flesh. Shroeder shows through an example of integrated duck and fish farming that the annual yield of fish reached one ton live weight per pond (0.1 ha by 1m deep). With a sale price of 15 baht/kg fish, the annual revenue would be 30,000 baht of almost pure profit. Costs would be for fish fingerlings, labor, and land use. Shroeder states that with the proper polyculture of filter and bottom feeding fish, the integrated fish system has the potential to succeed in many different locations and change subsistence peasants into more productive farmers. He discusses research that is being conducted by the United Nations Network Aquaculture Center in Asia (NACA), which is in China. The research focuses on (1) the minimum amount of fertilizer required to attain a given fish yield, (2) whether grass should be fermented before being added to the pond, and (3) whether manure must be added daily rather than weekly. Schroeder concludes that all researchers at NACA have a single goal: "to develop a technology that will insure more and better food for the portion of our planet within 25 degrees of the equator where so many children now go hungry." Integrated fish farming could be the technology which will make this happen.

Abstract author: Anyeley Yawa Dzegede, 27 October 1995.

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