Constructing a Floating Rice-Fish Farm as a Creative Integration Model

Rice production is a critical food security issue for most global population, challenged with food shortage due to the continuous increase in population. However, rice is a water-intensive crop, and water scarcity is a growing global catastrophe, affecting various human needs and uses. Expanding multi-use integration models is a necessary approach to address these problems. In the present study, traditional rice cultivation methods were compared with a new floating system designed for fish farms. One acre of land used for traditional 178-Giza rice cultivation in the Nile Delta was subjected to all standard processes for 95 days. Simultaneously, polystyrene sheets (1m² area and 5cm thickness) were perforated and used to install perforated pots for cultivating the same variety of rice on one-acre fish ponds at the Serw Fish Farm (SFF), National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Egypt, for the same duration in 2022. In addition to enhancing water quality for fish, the floating rice-fish system at SFF significantly increased grain production (P≤ 0.05), yielding 6.2 MT of dry rice per acre, compared to the 3.5–4 MT per acre typically produced by commercial rice farms. In addition, an improvement was recorded in the growth performance of the Nile tilapia and catfish, resulting in a significant increase in economic profit for farmers—approximately doubling upon using the floating rice-fish integration system. The results suggest that the floating rice-fish integrated system should be expanded to freshwater bodies, particularly the Lake of Wadi El Rayan (Fayoum) and the Tushka depressions (Aswan), to help bridge the food gap and reduce water consumption.