By Joshua Kato
In many developed countries, for example, Israel, there is a direct or indirect linkage of all activities on a given farm. This is the same case with aquaculture and crop farming.
In countries like Thailand and Vietnam aquaculture is integrated with rice farming.
Crops that are mainly grown in integrated fish farming include cabbages, soybeans, yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, maize, wheat, rice etc. Such innovations can be easily adopted by Ugandan fish farmers in order for them to maximize benefits.
-The water from the ponds can be used to irrigate crops nearby, especially vegetables. In return, on top of eating the vegetables, some of the green fodder that is planted near the ponds can be used to fertilize the ponds. The vegetable material is first composted and fermented before being applied to the pond. Composting is done by covering fodder under the shade.
-The soils/mud around the ponds are very fertile. They can be used to grow various crops, most especially vegetables. Alternatively, you can use the ponds themselves to grow vegetables in between stocking of fish. This period is called fallowing. Such crops may include beans, rice and maize. Yields from such pond-grown crops have been much higher than ordinary garden crops.
-You can also carry out paddy rice cultivation in fish ponds. You stock the ponds when the rice fields are flooded and harvest the fish when the fields are drained. But because of the short period, fish that should be stocked must be at least 40 grams.
– Fruits and flowers can also be grown either on the pond dykes or in the gardens surrounding the ponds. Such crops take advantage of the pond water, which is used to irrigate them and can also benefit from the nutrients in the mud at the bottom that can be dredged and spread in the gardens. Fruits may include oranges.
