A combination of rice cultivar mixed-cropping and duck co-culture suppressed weeds and pests in paddy fields

Abstract

Industrial agriculture with intensive use of herbicides and pesticides has resulted in a great reduction of biodiversity and negative environmental impacts on rice paddy fields. Biodiversity-based farming systems can improve production efficiency and sustainability, with fewer negative environmental impacts and lower use of external inputs. Previous studies have reported that both the rice-duck co-culture systems and mixed-cropping systems with different rice cultivars can suppress weed communities and control harmful pests. However, little is known about the effects of an integration of mixed-cropping with different rice cultivars and rice-duck co-culture on weed communities and pests in paddy fields. Four combinations with three replications of each treatment were employed, half with and half without ducks in paddy fields, which were compared with mono-cropping systems of the five rice cultivars. After two-season experiments, we found that species richness and diversity of weed communities in the mixed-cropping with rice-duck co-culture (MCDC) systems were significantly lower than those in the mono-cropping systems. The abundance of rice leaf roller in the MCDC systems was also significantly lower than that in the mono-cropping systems. Our findings indicated that the biodiversity-based farming would be an environmentally friendly approach to control weeds and rice leaf roller without using herbicides or pesticides in paddy fields, and hence to produce more safe, healthy, and high-quality rice and duck meat.