Integrated rice-duck cultivation in Vietnam Duck raising has a long history in Vietnam. Duck owners are constantly trying to reduce feeding cost and use paddy grains dropped around rice fields to feed their ducks during the harvest period. When the young rice plants are well established, ducklings are got ready. The birds must be big enough to feed themselves when they are allowed into the rice fields after the crop has been harvested. An integrated rice-duck cultivation method developed in Japan offers another approach to integrating duck-rice production. Ten day-old ducklings are released into recently transplanted rice fields at a density of about 190 ducks per hectare. As they feed they help control insects, weeds, snails and even mice. In doing so, they considerably reduce the amount of human labour needed in cultivation. The ducks are taken out of the fields before the rice ears appear. They are then big enough eat. In 1994, the rice-duck system was tested for the first time in Vietnam. Trials took place in the Sustainable Agriculture Promotion Centre, Haiphong and were guided by VAC VINA (Garden Association of Haiphong). Farmers' interest was immediately aroused and the method is now being used by several hundred families in the locality. More data is necessary, however, before it can be introduced into extension programmes. This method of chemical-free rice cultivation has aroused much interest in Japan, where some 10,000 families have adopted the system, and in Korea, China and Taiwan. Recently, Tanzania also began experimented with this organic alternative. Pham Cong Phin, JIVC -Vietnam, Nha tinh thuong, 280 Tran Nguyen Han St., Haiphong, Vietnam. Fax & Tel: + 0084-31-856191. ILEIA Newsletter Vol. 13 No. 4 p. 17 << country/story review