Fish Culture in Intensively Cultivated Rice Fields: Growth Performance of Cyprinuscarpio

The aim of this paper is to highlight the important role which integrated and concurrent rice- fish culture can play to increase production when land and water resources are becoming scarce. The experiment was comprised of five treatments: rice fields with no fish stocking, (T1); stocked with Cyprinus carpio and no agrochemical spray (T2); stocked with C. carpio and agrochemical exposure as per recommended doses (T3); fish and agrochemical exposure according to rice farmers (T4) and rice fields without fish but agrochemical exposure (T5 or farmers treatment). Fish C. carpio with mean body weight of 13±0.471 were stocked @ 1 fish/3sq. m in rice plots of treatment T2, T3 and T4, 15-20 days after seedling transplantation for 90 days. Results revealed significantly (P < 0.05) high growth performance in terms of live weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), growth percent gain in body weight in the group of fishes in treatment T3. Significant population of planktons were also built up in all the treatments indicating the presence of fish food organisms. The rice production was also significantly (P < 0.05) high in treatment T3 and net profit was high in all the treatments where fish were stocked in comparison to rice monocultures. The treatments with fish may be recommended for dissemination to the farmers considering high yield and economic benefits, in the agro climatic conditions of Haryana, India.