Integrated Fish-cum-duck farming system: A tool for increasing farmer’s income

The study was carried out to analyze incomegeneration by adopting integrated fish-cum-duckfarming at farmers’ field for three consecutive years, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.. The trials were conducted in 4 villages of Kamrup District of Assam namely Manikpur, Rajkhowapara, Kukurmara, and Bichennella. The economics of the integrated farming system as well as farmer’s practice has been worked out and it has been found that gross profit to the tune of Rs. 5.69 lakh/ha and Rs. 2.39 lakh/ha were recorded from integrated fish cum duck farming and traditional fish farming practice with a net profit of Rs. 3.1 lakh/ha and Rs. 1.54 lakh/ha respectively. This gave an average benefit-cost ratio of 2.19 in integrated fish-cum-duckfarming and 1.83 in traditional fish culture practice. The study has revealed that the adoption of integrated fish cum duck farming provides additional net income of Rs. 1.56 lakhs/ha of water area over the traditional fish farming system. Additionally, the consumption of fish, duck meat and duck eggs add to food quality and livelihood security of the resource-poor family. The study has concluded that the integrated fish cum duck farming system could tackle the issues of sustainability, livelihood security and income generation effectively.