Design Model and Management Plan of a Rice–Fish Mixed Farming Paddy for Urban Agriculture and Ecological Education

Abstract

Imparting knowledge on agriculture and ecology is important for the preservation of nature. This study suggested the design of a rice–fish mixed farming (RFMF) paddy for urban agriculture and ecological education in Korea. This RFMF paddy supports the growth of rice as well as freshwater fish. ANOVA statistical analysis was conducted, and an RFMF paddy was necessary for urban agriculture/education and confirmed that biodiversity was high. To this aim, the design of a 10 m × 10 m RFMF paddy was suggested. Vegetation, insects, and aquatic invertebrates of the RFMF paddy constituted approximately 40 species more than a conventional paddy. The quality of an actual farm’s soil and water was assessed, and techniques for the co-cultivation of rice and fish are proposed. The soil must comply with the standards of Korean paddy soil, and the water must be in the temperature range of 15 to 35 °C. In the proposed design, approximately 44.0 kg rice can be produced, and catfish can grow up to 30 cm. The study suggested many experiences using rice and freshwater fish. On the basis of our study design, a virtual model of an RFMF paddy was developed in consideration of the accessible space. The development of RFMF paddies in educational institutions can promote biodiversity in cities while providing ecological education regarding aquatic plants and insects.

Exploring the Integration of Rice and Aquatic Species: Insights from Global and National Experiences

“…Rice-fish cultivation can potentially benefit groundwater recharge, water storage, and climate change mitigation efforts [112]. In Thailand, integrating RASp increases water storage by 16,682.3 THB ha −1 year −1 compared to monoculture, which only stores 295 THB ha −1 year −1 [47,48].…”

“…According to the literature review, most global rice-aquatic species farms are concentrated in South and East Asia. Still, there have been some developments in Africa, as shown in Figure 4 and Table 3 [5,27,[30][31][32][33]36,43,[45][46][47][48][49]54,55,62,66,73,76,88,[111][112][113][114].…”

“…According to the literature review, most global rice-aquatic species farms are concentrated in South and East Asia. Still, there have been some developments in Africa, as shown in Figure 4 and Table 3 [5,27,[30][31][32][33]36,43,[45][46][47][48][49]54,55,62,66,73,76,88,[111][112][113][114]. RASp integration has been an excellent source of nutrition and food security for farming communities worldwide, dating back to the Han Dynasty in ancient China around 2000 years ago [45,88], followed by India [39], Bangladesh [31,35], Vietnam [35,42,45,52,98], Egypt [59], Indonesia, Lao PDR [100,115], The Philippines [54,66,100], Cambodia [10], Malaysia, Myanmar [18], Thailand [46][47][48]...…”

“…The total area of RASp co-cultivation has reached 1.67 × 106 ha, representing 4.48% of the total rice planting area in China [38]. In 2016, the area covered by rice-crayfish was 4.2 × 105 ha [37], while RASp reached 2.37 × 106 ha in 2019 and 2.53 × 106 h m 2 (a square The Ciamis area of West Java, and Indonesia, even before 1860 RASp integration has been an excellent source of nutrition and food security for farming communities worldwide, dating back to the Han Dynasty in ancient China around 2000 years ago [45,88], followed by India [39], Bangladesh [31,35], Vietnam [35,42,45,52,98], Egypt [59], Indonesia, Lao PDR [100,115], The Philippines [54,66,100], Cambodia [10], Malaysia, Myanmar [18], Thailand [46][47][48]62], Hungary [112], Sri Lanka [114,116], Korea [117], and Kerala [51,105]. RASp is most prevalent in regions with deepwater and rain-fed rice cultivation [117].…”