In the Mekong river region of Vietnam an integrated azolla-rice-duck-fish farming system has still not been studied for this area. This farming system proved in improvement of the quality of rice, soil and environment. Moreover, farmers in this area tend to work individually without collaboration with each other. Therefore, a new integrated azolla-rice-duck-fish farming system is necessary to be introduced in an adapted way under local conditions for this region. The main purpose of this project is to draw attention of local farmers in the social community in changing the working attitude for the farmers from individualism to collaboration which aims to improve farmers' life by working more efficiently and economically with a cheap and environmentally ecologically friendly and efficacy integrated azolla-rice-duck-fish farming systems. Besides, a change of farmers' consciousness from carelessness to care for environmental protection during their agricultural activities and as well a change from inorganic and unhealthy food to the organic and healthy food consumption demands from society are other purposes of this project.

 

In the Mekong river region of Vietnam farmers have depended very much on agrochemicals for agriculture, especially in rice cultivation. An integrated azolla-rice-duck-fish farming system has still not studied yet in this area although this farming system proved in improvement of the quality of rice, soil and environment for sustainable development. Therefore, the main purpose of this project was draw attention of local farmers in the social community in changing the working attitude for the farmers from individualism to collaboration which aimed to improve farmer’s life by working more efficiently and economically with a cheap and environmentally ecologically friendly and efficacy integrated azolla-rice-duck-fish farming systems. The research based on survey and interview people in the community concerning knowledge about the integrated azolla-rice-duck-fish farming system. Lab and greenhouse experiments were conducted concerning the growth conditions of azolla and as well manufacturing process for producing a simple, clean and effective bio-fertilizer from azolla, cow dung manure, used coffee ground, eggshell and feather and finally an field trial as demonstrating models was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of this integrated farming system on social community, environmental and ecological protections and the yield and quality of rice products. The results from the farmer household surveyed at 4 different rice producing areas of the Mekong Delta including Vinh Long, Hau Giang, Ben Tre and An Giang provinces showed that 43.8% and 61.0% surveyed farmers of Vinh Long and Hau Giang provinces, respectively knew about what azolla was and it’s functions in agriculture and environment whilst 91.4% and 100% surveyed farmers of Ben Tre and An Giang provinces, respectively did not know about the azolla. Almost farmers at 4 studied sites knew about rice-duck farming system, but azolla-rice-duck-fish farming system. Finally five different local azolla were collected for further research from Vinh Long province (2 azolla), Cantho (2 azolla) and Bentre (1 azolla). These five local azolla were morphologically identified as the same and the nutrient values of these 5 azolla were given more or less the same in moisture, organic matter, organic carbon, total N, P, K, Mg and Ca. Among them, azolla VL1 from Vinh Long province showed itself slightly higher than other azolla in term of nutrient contents. The good conditions for VL1 azolla to grow and build the biomass was full light regime and pH of the medium around 5. This VL1 azolla could grow well in the growing medium containing 0.25% NaCl. This azolla slightly affected by 3 kinds of herbicides (Sofit 300 EC, Butan 60 EC and 2,4D 80 W) and 2 kinds of pesticides (Saromite 57 EC and Tasieu 5 WG) while the insecticide Tasieu 5 WG strongly affected on growth and biomass of VL1 azolla. For the greenhouse experiments, filled rice grain weight/pot in both systems (conventional and SRI) was highest in the treatment which received 10 tons of  azolla green manure plus 50% recommended inorganic fertilizers (45-30-15) in a combination of 2 tons of alive fresh azolla on the surface at the beginning whilst for Chinese mustard and cucumber yield, the treatment received 10 tons of fresh biomixture including azolla, cow dung manure, used coffee ground, eggshell and feather was the best treatment to perform the growth, and to produce the yield of these two crops. For the field trial, in the first crop season (Summer-Fall), the rice yield in the farmer practice and the integrated rice-duck-fish-azolla farming system with farmer practice treatments was significantly higher than that in the integrated rice-duck-fish-azolla farming system with SRI practice. In the 2^nd crop season the yield of rice grains in both treatments including farmer practice and the integrated rice-duck-fish-azolla farming system with SRI practice was higher than that in the rest one. Finally, we successfully produced a brochure so called “How to grow azolla in small scale under the household conditions?” for local farmers to produce azolla at household scale. And a mini symposium entitled “Development of integrated Azolla-Rice-Duck-Fish farming system for sustainably organic rice production in the Mekong River region of Vietnam” on December 14^th 2016 at Chau Hung hamlet, Binh Binh Dai district, Ben Tre province with a great support of invited Prof. Kazuhiko Kobayashi from The University of Tokyo, Japan was organized.