title: Can the co-cultivation of rice and fish help sustain rice production?
abstract: Because rice feeds half of the world's population, a secure global food supply depends on sustainable rice production. Here we test whether the co-cultivation of rice and fish into one "rice-fish system" (RFS; fish refers to aquatic animals in this article) could help sustain rice production. We examined intensive and traditional RFSs that have been widely practiced in China. We found that rice yields did not decrease when fish yield was below a threshold value in each intensive RFS. Below the thresholds, moreover, fish yields in intensive RFSs can be substantially higher than those in traditional RFS without reducing rice yield. Relative to rice monoculture, the use of fertilizer-nitrogen and pesticides decreased, and the farmers' net income increased in RFSs. The results suggest that RFSs can help sustain rice production, and suggest that development of co-culture technologies (i.e. proper field configuration for fish and rice) is necessary to achieve the sustainability.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Liangliang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Weizheng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: College of Aquaculture and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
authors.forename: Yongxu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: College of Aquaculture and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
authors.forename: Jiayao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Aquaculture Technical Extension Station, Ministry of Agriculture of People's Republic of China, Beijing 100125, China.
authors.forename: Kexin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Aquaculture Technical Extension Station, Ministry of Agriculture of People's Republic of China, Beijing 100125, China.
authors.forename: Zewen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
authors.forename: Jiaen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
authors.forename: Shiming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Jianjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002347:Carps / Q000254:growth & development*; D002681:China; D000069599:Crop Production / Q000379:methods*; D012275:Oryza / Q000254:growth & development*