Zhu Songjun

1 Qingtian County Zhusongjun Family Farm, Qingtian, 323912, Zhejiang, China
2 Zhejiang Agronomist College, Hangzhou, 310021, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2026, Vol. 16, No. 5   
Received: 15 Sep., 2026    Accepted: 20 Oct., 2026    Published: 26 Oct., 2026

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ricefish coculture is an ecological agricultural production system that integrates rice cultivation with fish farming and has significant potential for improving overall paddy field productivity, promoting agricultural resource recycling, and supporting green agricultural development. Based on relevant studies conducted in China and other countries, this review systematically examines the effects of rice-fish coculture on fish growth performance, survival rate, aquaculture yield, and feed utilization, and comprehensively evaluates its production benefits in terms of rice production, economic returns, ecological conditions, resource utilization, and product quality. Previous studies have demonstrated that appropriately managed rice-fish coculture systems can utilize natural food resources in paddy fields to promote fish growth and aquatic product output, while maintaining or improving rice yield and production stability through nutrient cycling, pest, disease, and weed control, and improved soil conditions. The combined production of rice and fish can increase total output value and net returns per unit area, reduce certain fertilizer and pesticide inputs, improve land and water resource utilization efficiency, and enhance certain nutritional quality attributes of fish and rice. However, overall benefits vary with fish species, stocking density, field infrastructure, and environmental management practices. Excessive aquaculture intensity and inappropriate input management may increase production costs, aggravate water quality deterioration, and generate environmental risks. To address these challenges, this review proposes strategies involving optimized fish species selection and stocking density, improved paddy field infrastructure, strengthened water quality and nutrient management, standardized production, and coordinated value-chain development. Future research should emphasize long-term, multi-regional comprehensive assessments to further clarify the relationships between production benefits and ecological impacts, providing scientific references for the effective promotion of rice-fish coculture systems and the green and sustainable development of agriculture.

Rice-fish coculture; Fish growth performance; Rice production benefits; Economic benefits; Resource utilization efficiency