UNESCO-listed rice-fish-duck ecosystem benefits SW China's Guizhou

Guizhou Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs

Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, home to many ethnic groups, inherits an ancient and charming traditional Chinese agriculture -- vast expanses of mountain slopes carved into rice paddies where rice, fish and ducks flourish in co-existence.

The agricultural feat of growing one season of rice, keeping a batch of fish and raising a batch of ducks in the same rice paddy has been inherited for thousands of years in Congjiang.

The rice-fish-duck ecosystem in the county was listed as a pilot project for the protection of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in 2011, and became the first batch of important agricultural cultural heritages in China in 2013.

With the start of China's traditional solar term Grain Rain, or Guyu, agricultural activities will kick into high gear on the terraced fields. Farmers put rice seedlings into the rice fields, and meanwhile, put some fish fry. When the fish fry grow to two to three fingers wide, the newly-hatched ducklings will also be put into the fields.

The rice fields provide natural food for fish and ducks, and the fish and ducks remove pests and weeds from the fields, greatly reducing the use of pesticides and herbicides. Fish and duck dung provides natural organic fertilizer for rice. Rice, fish and ducks are harvested from one rice field at the same time.

The county has made full use of the rice-fish-duck ecosystem, protecting the agricultural cultural heritage and helping local people get rid of poverty and achieve rural revitalization at the same time.

During the 15th conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity held in Canada in December 2022, the rice-fish-duck ecosystem in Congjiang County demonstrated to the world the ancestral wisdom of farming and biodiversity conservation experiences of local people for thousands of years.

In 2023, the rice-fish-duck ecosystem in Congjiang was collected and recognized for its excellence during the fourth call of the Global Solicitation on Best Poverty Reduction Practices.

Congjiang County boasts Kam Rice of China, a special kind of rice that has been domesticated for thousands of years by the local Dong people in Guizhou. With ethnic groups accounting for 90 percent of its population, the county is home to rich and colorful ethnic cultures and reputed as the national ecological cultural gene park.

Entering the mountainous villages in the county, traditional residences, drum towers and ancient barns are scattered. During the harvest season in autumn, rows of golden rice hang in the villages, reshaping a beautiful landscape.

Source: Guizhou Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs