Integrated ‘Paddy Cum Fish’ Farming Likely to Promote Sustainable Agro-Ecosystem in Tripura, NE India

Achieving sustainable agriculture shall remain among the key challenges for national governments all across the world in the twenty-first century to fulfil the increasing demand for food supply and security. For developing countries including India, agriculture and its related activities have always been the major sources of food supply, income, and livelihood requirements for their people. However, achieving these goals would no longer be so simple depending exclusively upon conventional agricultural practices and, hence, require the adoption of most preeminent farming practices that contribute to sustainable agriculture and, in turn, could promote ecological and environmental sustainability. In this work, a practical case study was undertaken on integrated ‘paddy cum fish’ farming in a selected plot at Durlabnarayanpur village falling in the Sepahijala district of the Indian State of Tripura. Moreover, cost–benefit analysis is applied to show how the integrated ‘paddy cum fish’ farming approach (Alternative l ~ ‘A1’) contributes to increased productivity and profitability than the cultivation of only paddy (Alternative 2 ~ ‘A2’). In the results, it is found that the combined actual revenue derived from A1 is much higher than the projected revenue likely to be derived only from paddy A2. Therefore, the adoption of integrated ‘paddy cum fish’ farming was found to be more beneficial as it contributes to increased productivity and profitability out of a unit cultivated area through the optimum use of adjacent resources. In addition, there is an imperative need to formulate and implement policies specifically on the integrated farming systems in the state of the concerned government to promote a sustainable future.