Evaluation of Integrated Fish Farming with Chicken and Vegetables in Silte District of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted in Silte district of Southern Ethiopia with the objective to assess the productivity and profitability of integrated fish with chicken and vegetable farming in the study area.  A pond with a surface area of 150 m² (10m*15m) and depth of 1.2m was used for the investigation. A poultry house was constructed over the pond with an open garden and a laying room. Twenty five White Leghorn chicken (5 cocks and 20 pullets) of  two months old were introduced in to the shelter. Fingerlings of Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) 330 fish in number were used to stock the ponds. Three vegetables, viz., onion (Red bombey), cabbage (Vikima) and tomato (ROMA VFN) were grown near by the pond using pond and stream water with or without inorganic fertilizer application.The result indicates that the mean values of pond water physico-chemical characteristics such as conductivity, average temperature, total digestible solute, salinity, resistivity, pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) of the pond water  were 113.5µS, 25⁰C, 84.5 mg/L, 0.07ppt, 8.3 MΩ, 8.1 and 4.5 mg/L, respectively. A total of 2392 chicken eggs were produced within 161 days. The total fishes produced in number were 3000 and their total weight was 326000 gram (g). The average weight of a fish was 108.7g. Vegetable production varied significantly (p<0.05) with pond and stream water and with or without inorganic fertilizer use. The partial budget analysis of the integrated farming indicates that the estimated net profit obtained on 0.25ha of land was 9336.13 Eth Birr (1 Birr = 0.044 USD). However, the net profits from a common crop in the area (maize), fish, chicken and vegetables alone were 2, 9, 18.2 and 72.8 % of the net profit obtained from the integrated system. This indicates that poultry-fish-vegetables integration fetches a higher revenue over the mono crop or mono livestock activities. However, to fetch maximum revenue from the integration, the water physio-chemical characteristics should be kept at constant, with proper species and number of fish introduced, managed and fed with chicken droppings from the optimum chicken number per square meter.

Keywords: Fish-Chicken-vegetable integration, productivity, profitability, Silte Zone.