Rice-Duck farming system by Rijish Rajan

Happened to meet a farmer in Palakkad,Kerala who has been doing Rice-Duck farming since couple of years. He cultivates around 3 acres of paddy field and young ducks are released once the seedlings are 1 month old. Young ducks should not be allowed in water for many hours, initially it is just 1 hour. Slowly the duration can be increased, and feeding is done at night, mornings they work in the field. Initially they have to be trained to move to different parts of the field, otherwise they will be stuck in one part of the field. They have to be trained to get into the cage, once done, they will obey your order. According to him, this was a traditional method used in Kuttanad area (Alappuzha District of Kerala), later when chemical farming came into existence, this was forgotten. Fukuoka also talks about this method and he recommends to use 10 ducklings for 0.25 acre.

Ducks helps him in weeding, fertilizing, pesticide control (some times he has to use some organic pesticides)...He gets around 1500-1800kgs of paddy per acre and the cultivar is 'Kanchana'.

Some photos...