Evaluation of rice-fish culture in south eastern Nigeria

A rice-fish culture trial was conduct in Umudike, Southeastern Nigeria, using FARO 44 rice variety Oreochromis niloticus and in six plots (198 m2 each'). Two treatments, sole rice and rice-fish culture were employed with each treatment replicated three times. Juveniles of O. niloticus with mean weight 12 g were stocked at the rate of 2/m2, four weeks after transplanting four- week -old rice seedlings using 20 cm inter and intra row spacing. Basal fertilizer (NPK 20:10:10) was applied at the rate of 300 kg per ha while 20 kg per ha urea was used as top dressing. Brewery spent grain was used as supplementary feed at the rate of 2% body weight of fish once daily. The fish and rice were harvested after 80 days of culture and 108 days after transplanting, respectively. The rice fish culture gave an average yield of 1125.25 kg per ha and 2433 kg per ha for fish and rice respectively. The sole rice treatment had an average yield of 2510 kg per ha. Since the integration of fish in the rice plots did not significantly (P