3.0 POULTRY - FISH FARMING

An integrated approach to poultry cum fish farming is carried out by Rangayya (1977) who is proud of his two-in-one poultry cum fish farm. The poultry house, built on a wooden platform erected in a pond had 1,600 birds kept in two-tire battery type cages provided with feed troughs and water channels. The droppings of the chickens fall straight into the pond, about 0.2 hectare in size, stocked with fingerlings which serve a field of about half hectare under para grass.

Rangayya estimated the net additional income from fish at Rs. 1,000 (US$ 130). He was convinced of the usefulness of the system to increase small farmers' income and said that his pond could irrigate more area under grass. The battery system makes maintenance and management easy and economical while it also helps in the production of ‘clean’ eggs.

The village of Gudlavalleru with 8,000 population produce 70,000 eggs a day and 10,000 litres of milk. It has two milk chilling centres and a poultry marketing ubcentre. The State Bank of India has financed about 75 poultry farms in the village and the bank has attracted over 1200 saving accounts from the farmers (The Hindu, June 24, 1977).

The live-weight process production or farm raised catfish in the United States for May Catfish totalled 1.8 million pounds. According to Newton and Merkowsky (1977), the total production for the year is estimated to be almost 10 million pounds (4.5 million kg). Farmers are obtaining 60–65 cents per pound.

Research on the fertilizing efficiency of chicken manure in fish ponds, either alone or in Combination with cattle manure, has been done by Banerjee et al. (1969), who observed that a combination of chicken and cattle manure worked better than the cattle manure alone in fertilizing nursery ponds. It has also been reported that poultry manure is a complete fertilizer, with the characteristics of both organic as well as inorganic fertilizers (Banerjee et al. (1979). Ray and David (1969) found that chicken manure produced a large population of rotifers quicker than cattle manure. A fish yield of 670 kg/ha/90 day has been reported by Banerjee et al. (1979), using poultry manure and no supplemental feeds.

In Indonesia, the Chicken-fish farms usually practice monoculture of Common carp or Java carp stocking with 1 to 3 cm fry and 10g fingerlings. The alternative is polyculture of common carp, tilapia, nilem carp and kissing goramy. No supplemental feeds are given. Examples of inputs and yields for chickens and fish are given in the tables (5) & (6) below:

Table 5: Annual inputs and returns for 3 integrated mendong (Fimbristylls globum)-fish farms in Indonesia, excluding depreciation costs (unit of currency, Rupish (Rp): US$ 1.00=Rp 627).

   Water surface area (m2)

420 1,050 1,680

  Fish

1 Inputs

labor   6,000 10,000 18,600

fish seed 20,000 15,000 12,000

seed 15,000 30,000  7,500

  Total(A) 41,000 55,000 38,100

2.

Output(B) 57,240 90,000 90,000

3.

Net return (B - A) 16,240 35,000 51,900

4.

Rate of return as a % of A       40        64      136

         

  Mendong

1.

Inputs

field construction 11,000 26,000 43,000

equipment   2,750   3,500   3,000

labor 11,700 21,000 16,800

seedlings      800   2,000   3,200

fertilizer   1,050   8,750   8,750

pesticides          -          -      375

taxes      420   1,050   1,680

  Total(C) 27,720 62,300 76,805

2.

Output(D) 60,000117,750  

134,400  

3.

Net return (D-C) 32,280 55,450 57,595

4.

Rate of return as a % of C      116        89        75

         

  Fish + Mendong

1.

Total costs (A + C) 68,720117,300  

114,905

2.

Total returns (B + D)117,240  

207,750  

224,400

3.

Total net returns 48,520 90,450 109,495

4.

Total rate of return as a % of total costs

       71        77          95

Source: Pullin & Shehadeh, 1980

Table 6: Annual Inputs and returns for 3 integrated chickenfish farms in Indonesia, excluding depreciation costs (walt of currency, Ruplah (Rp): US$ 1.00 = Rp 627).

   Pond area (m2)

400 800 2,408

  Fish

1.

Inputs

pond construction      880 22,000 44,000

labor   7,200 168,000   30,000

fingerlings 17,000 240,000   189,000  

feed 21,900         -         -

fertilizer 10,600   1,800   8,100

taxes      400      800   2,400

  Total(A) 57,980 432,600    273,500  

2.

Output (B) 130,600   1,201,800     

610,350  

3.

Net return (B - A) 72,620 769,200   336,850  

4.

Rate of return as a % of A      125      178      123

         

  Chickens

1.

Inputs

chicken house    

38,280   110,000 11,000

labor  

150,000   127,400 36,000

stocking    

48,000   525,000 82,500

feed  

985,5001,521,450 40,590

medication               -      19,200        -

  Total (C)1,221,78

02,303,050 170,090

2.

Output (D)1,773,00

03,585,000 247,500  

3.

Net return (D - C)  

551,2201,281,950 77,410

4.

Rate of return as a % of C           

45            56        46

         

  Fish + Chickens

1.

Total costs (A + C)1,279,76

02,735,650 443,590

2.

Total returns (B + D)1,903,60

04,786,800 857,850

3.

Total net returns  

623,8402,051,150 414,260

4.

Total rate of return as a % of total costs

           49             75          93

It is estimated that each chicken produces about 40 g of excreta per day.

Fowler and Lock (1974) described the possibility of inclusion of poultry waste as a feed ingredient in catfish ration. Some farmers in Asia build poultry cages on a wooden platform above a fish pond, poultry feed together with spilled feed fall directly into the pond where it is consumed by the fish. This system is very practical, no cleaning of poultry cages is necessary, and poultry situated above the fish pond enjoy an excellent air circulation which has a significant cooling effect for laying birds which are particularly sensitive to heat stress. This system in terms of livestock waste management increases the profit derived from fish and totally eliminates the pollution problem. It is estimated that one laying hen will produce enough manure to generate about 6–8 kg/year of fish biomass. Manure derived from individual confined livestock species (annually) can support the following annual production range of fish biomass (Muller, 1980).

Manure fromFish biomass production

(kg/year)

One dairy cow 100 – 200

One beef cattle 90 – 160

One sheep 10 –   17

One laying hen 6 –    8

One replacement bird

4 –    5

One broiler 3 –    4

One turkey 7 –    8

The conversion ratio of manure to fish biomass is related to numerous factors, particularly the fish species, climatic conditions and pond water management.

It can be concluded that fish cultures are an excellent outlet, closing circularly integrated recycling systems without further pollution discharge. This is even more true when fish ponds can be switched over to cropping every second year, a system quite commonly used in Asia. This practice supports both high production of disease free fish and high crop yields.

In Alabama, Nerrie and Smitherman (1979) used pelleted chicken manure to feed tilapia stocked at approximately 10,000/ha. to 120 kg/ha/day of pelleted chicken manure was considered safe. Average fish production of 14 kg/ha/day resulted from using chicken manure, the pelleted manure supplemented with soybean and corn meals increased fish production to 22 kg/ha/day.

INTEGRATED LIVESTOCK-FISH FARMING:BANGLADESH PERSPECTIVE

Quazi M. Emadadul HuquePoultry Production Research Division,

Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute,Dhaka, Bangladesh.

ABSTRACT

The present status of animal and fish production system and the various integration of duck, chicken, goat, rice with fish production systems in Bangladesh are reviewed with emphasis on traditional approach and present efforts of the production systems. Maximum average fish yield of 5.68 tons/ha/year was attained with manure fertilizer which was 5–7 times higher than normal fish production. Economic analysis included duck-fish, chicken-fish, broiler-fish and rice-fish production systems.

INTRODUCTION

In a country like Bangladesh where land is scarce, effort should be taken to increase production through integration of various production systemlike animal-cum-fish or rice-cum-fish culture for efficient utilization of available meagre resources and maximisation of production of diversified products, from a minimum area, which will increase the income of the farmers and would enhance food production. A multi-commodity farming system presents more advantages to a mono-cropping system. But the commodity-integration must fit into the particular farmer's capability, resources and need as well as the social, economic and environmental factors around him.

INTEGRATED PRODUCTION SYSTEM

The traditional mixed farming systems have been existing in Bangladesh with crop based subsistance economy. Although the crop sub-system is dominant but the other sub-systems like household, animal, fish pond and orchards are integrated and interdependent. The household provides labour and management, crop provides food and feed, animal provides milk, meat, power, manure and capital, fish pond provides food and irrigation and orchards provides fire wood and fruits.

Farmers of Bangladesh have been practicing fish culture in a traditional way in pond/tank, lakes, streams, canals or water reservoirs for a long time and are also rearing ducks under extensively. The ducks are mainly dependent on organisms of water origin like snails, oysters, algae, small fishes ect. and homestead waste to meat their daily feed requirement (Huque, 1991). A large number of small-scale farmers raised relatively few free ranging ducks that foraged for most or all of thier feed. Sometimes the farmers provide supplementary feed to the ducks.

PRESENT EFFORTS

Integrated poultry-cum-fish production systems in Bangladesh is a successful operation. Although the egg production is low in Bangladesh context, the total returns are higher compared to the raising duck or fish alone due to high feed cost. The integrated production system can be divided into five subsystem: (i) Duck-cum-fish, (ii) Layer-cum-fish, (iii) Broiler-cum-fish, (iv) Ruminant (goat)-cum-fish (v) Rice-cum-fish farming.

Duck-cum-fish integrated farming system has been introduced in Bangladesh by Fisheries Research Institute in 1986, who refined this technology in Bangladesh perspective through a number of production trials. The ponds were stocked with carp fingerlings at a density of 7500 fingerlings/ha and Khaki Campbell ducks were reared over the experimental pond, at 200, 400

and 500 duck/ha. Average production of fish was 1.82, 3.15 and 4.50 tons/ha/year with the density of 200, 400 and 500 ducks/ha respectively as compared to 0.49 tons/ha from control pond. The average egg production of Khaki Campbell duck was 240 eggs/ducks/year of local ducks. After several trial it has been found that the average fish yield of 5.68 tons/ha/year from duck-fish experiment. This yield was 5–7 times higher than the normal fish production (Nuruzzaman, 1991). Jhingran and Sharma (1980) reported that the fish yield was 4.32 tons/ha/year in duck-fish farming in India. The amount of fish produced in Bangladesh under integrated duck-cumfish farming (5.68 tons/ha/year) is a very prospective fish production practice where fish fingerlings rate was at the rate of 6000/ha with 30,10,25,5 and 5 percent of silver carp, catla, rohu, mrigal, grass carp and mirror carp respectively. A comparative study of fish production in on-station and on-farm ponds of integrated duck-cum-fish farming showed 5.68 and 5.64 tons/ha/year respectively (Uddin, 1990). In another study at Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute with three type of duck breeds for selecting duck breed for the integrated system, average fish yield was 3.22 tons/ha in a period of 4 month culture of fish raising (Huque and Ebadul, 1991). A detail of input costs and return for a years' production of fishduck farming system showed the net profit was Tk. 1,92,068.00 (Nuruzzaman, 1991).

Integrated layer chicken-cum-fish farming

The integrated layer chicken-fish farming operation is undertaken with the commercial strain of layers where the birds are kept at the floor over the pond. Though this integrated system of farming requires skilled management for both layer chicken and fish but it proves economically and technically viable at farmers condition. The economic analysis of this system revealed a net profit of Tk. 219.836.00/ha/year where the fish production cage rearing was 4.89 tons/ha/year (Nuruzzaman, 1991). Recently cage rearing of layers over the fish pond has been introduced. In this case droppings drop directly to the pond without any wastage.

Integrated broiler-fish farming

Integrated broiler-fish farming is a successful system practiced in the country in a small number. The economics analysis of this integrated system showed that this is economically and technically highly viable. But this system has got some limitation in rural areas of Bangladesh. The regular supply of day-old chicks with two month interval and marketing of broilers could pose problems in the rural areas.

Integrated goat-cum-fish farming

In Bangladesh, there are 12 million goat and sheep. Intensive goat raising are increasing due to high mutton cost. Manure from goat and sheep is also potential for integrated animal-fish farming system but this is not yet used in widespread integration with fish culture. Libunao (1990) reported that the fish feed produced in the ponds with goat manure is efficiently utilized by the fish biomass. He also mentioned that the growth of tilapia increased with the rate of goat manure loading. Goat-fish farming is being practiced by the one NGO name “Bangladesh Mission” in Bangladesh. But the study of production performance of fish has not been completed.

Integrated rice-cum-fish farming

The integrated culture of captural wild fish into rice fields in fresh water or estuarine areas of different regions of Bangladesh is an old practice. Ricecum-shrimp culture practice in the

Southern part of the country is known as “Gher” method. Traditional capture of fish from inundated floodplains having rice is also very common in Bangladesh. About 0.2 million tons of different types of fishes harvested from rice field per year.

WASTE UTILIZATION

The high cost of feed is the major constraint to intensive fish production. The raising cost of fish feed has brought interest in the utilization of animal waste in pond culture. The cowdung and poultry dried droppings as a direct fish feed showed that manure are poor substitutes for the components normally included in fish feed pellets. The maximum 30 percents dried manure may be included in the fish be feed to obtain equal growth with conventional fish feed pellets (Schroeder, 1980). The quality value of manure as a substrate for microbial growth is directly related to the feed the animal received. The concentrated feed gives the high value than the fibrous feed. Generally, the value of the manure, in increasing order is: cattle, sheep and goat, followed by pig, chicken and ducks.

POTENTIAL FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

The importance of integrated livestock/poultryfish production system has began to be more appreciated. The package technology of this integrated production system has may minimize the animal protein gap at low cost. This increase fish production potential means of waste utilization which increase fish production potential without the use of supplemented feed normally used for fish production. Here is much potentiality for the introduction of the cultural system of fish where only the captural system is practiced. The exploitation of the potential of large number of fish pond through animal rearing make an important contribution to increase farm income and nutrition gap of small-scale farmers.

The Fisheries Research Institute has developed a simple and an economically viable production system of integrating fish culture and chicken/duck rearing. The pilot experiments of on-farm study for this technology has been completed with very promising results. This packaged technology has been taken to rural farmers in a large-scale as multi-location trials.

Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute has started an experiment to select the type/breed of duck with different level of duck nutrition for making this duck/fish technology more economic and productive to fit in integrated duck-fish production system in the country. This integrated system has a great production potential to decrease the malnutrition of the country by increasing animal protein production.

CONCLUSION

Two or three fold integrated production system like animal-fish-vegetable, or rice-fish are unique technology of diversifying food production and increasing the income of small scale farmers. There is a need for critical studies on animal/fish/vegetable integrated production system. Effort is required to standardize the fish size, stocking rate, feeding, species combination and feeding, type of animal, number of animal and their size; age and diet, quality of seasonal factors will also have to be considered. As the success of integrated system depends on low production cost and high returns, the management techniques for animals will have to be improved. Feeding technology for reducing feed cost, faster growth and higher yield of animals should be adopted. The standard methodology for this region matched with available resources need to be developed. Extensive efforts for transferring this production technology to the farmers through

direct linkage need to be organized through structural support and marketing system for upliftment of rural poor. Liquid manure of effluent from bio-gas digester can be matched with this production technology, if possible human excreta can be added in this technique.

REFERENCES

Edwards, P. (1986). Duck/Fish Integrated Farming Systems. In: Duck Production Science and World Practice. Edited by D.J. Farrell and P. Stapleton, University of New England. 267 pp.

Huque, Q..E. and Ebadul, M.H. (1991). An Efficiency of Khaki combell, Jinding and Local Ducks in an Integrated Duck-Cum-Fish Farming. Progress Report, Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, Saavar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Huque, Q.M.E. (1991). Duck Production System in Bangladesh. Asian Livestock, XVI (2): 18 pp.

Jhingran, V.G. and Sharma, B.K. (1980). Integrated Livestock-fish farming in India. (Edited by Pullin, R.S.V. and Shehadeh, Z.H.) Proceedings of the ICLARM-SEARCA Conference on Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture Farming System, ICLARM Conference Proceedings 4, Manila, August 1979, ICLARM-SEARCA, Manila, Philippines, 135–142 pp.

Libunao, L.P. (1990). Goat/Fish Integrated Farming in the Philippines, AMBIO 19 (8): 408–410.

Nuruzzaman, A.K.M. (1991). Integrated Fish Farming System Holds Promise in Bangladesh. Published by 5/H Eastern Housing Apt. Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Schroeder, L. G., (1980). Fish Farming in ManureLoaded Ponds (Edited by Pullin, R.S.V. and Shehadeh, Z.H.), Proceedings of the ICLARM-SEARCH conference on Integrated Agriculture Farming Systems, ICLARM conference proceedings 4, Manila, August 1979, pp. 73–86.

Uddin, S. (1990). Development of Integrated Livestock-Fish-Crop Farming. Progress report, BARC/FRI Contract Research Project.