INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY OF INTEGRATED RICE-FISH CULTIVATION IN THE COUNTRY

Rice is one of the main agricultural crops and is considered a promising high-income sector in Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan. Due to rice yields being 1.6 times higher than wheat yield, farmers are annually increasing its cultivation area.

This year, with support from the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, the State Institution “Agriculture Entrepreneurship Development” launched integrated rice-fish cultivation under the “Strengthening Resilience of the Agriculture Sector Project” to ensure national food security.

The institution specialists, together with this area scientists, examined the country rice-growing regions and selected 9 towns/districts and 20 rice farms as pilot sites for integrated rice-fish cultivation.

Currently, according to the plan, the fingerlings deliveries continue to these rice farms, with a standard stocking density of 3,000 fingerlings per hectare. This provides farmers the access to 60,000 fingerlings across 20 hectares of land.