UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Integrated fish culture system, animal wastes and undigested and spilt food particles are directly consumed by the fish and some portion of waste acts as nutrient and organic substances for many microorganisms which are consumed directly by fish or by invertebrates fish food organism. A field experiments were conducted for improving the productivity as well as generate more income of farmers from various crops practiced in a specific area for a certain time; the integrated approach of fish cum duck culture carried out in farmer’s field. The experiment was conducted at Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh to Demonstrate fish cum duck culture on physico-chemical, biological parameters of pond ecosystem and overall fish production in the ponds. This trials were conducted during three successive years from 2019-20 to 2021-2022 for the period of 10 months duration. The pond was stocked with fingerlings @6000 /ha of IMC (Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala in a ratio of 4:3:3) to utilize the maximum energy in the pond through polyculture system. Khaki Campbell variety of ducks was used for the integrated system to fulfill the purpose of obtaining the meat and for deliver the excreta into the ponds directly during wild grazing. According to the village-level cultural practice, the ducks were fed fresh kitchen scraps and agricultural byproducts like kodha (rice bran) and kanki (broken cereal grains), which are readily available in rural areas, while the fish were not given any additional feed. According to the study, the integrated pond's water quality parameters—pH, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, and hardness—were noticeably greater than those of the control pond, which was devoid of ducks. Duck droppings and the natural manuring of fish ponds also significantly increased the quantities of phytoplankton and zooplankton in the integrated pond. Economic analysis of fish cum duck integrated system revealed that total net return from recommended practices were Rs.110,000 ha^-1. The net returns in farmer’s practices were Rs. 57400 ha^-1were recorded. The average BCR were 2.15 in recommended practices as compared to 1.69 in farmer’s practices and additional income of duck meat of Rs. 88500 and duck egg Rs. 17130 and the consumption of fish, duck meat and duck eggs added to food quality and livelihood security of the resource-poor family and input cost reduce as well.  The study has concluded that the integrated fish cum duck farming system, could tackle the issues of sustainability, livelihood security and income generation effectively.