Study on the functionning of an integrated fish farming ecosystem in a swamp area in Rwanda

This project is led in cooperation by the FUNDP and the National University of Rwanda (UNR). It aims at mastering fish production (Oreochromis niloticus and Clarias gariepinus) using relatively well balanced, cheap Azolla-based diets, by improving larval rearing (of particular importance in Clarias, whose reproduction does not take place in the ponds), and by fertilizing fish ponds with effluents from various fish/terrestrial animal associations, among those the rabbit/fish association. This project also endeavours to look at the exchanges taking place between the embankments, water and the bottom mud, in order to describe the functionning of an integrated fish farming pond and subsequently plan the interventions aimed at enhancing agricultural production on the embankments. In 1997, a laboratory was set up, the diets were formulated and produced, and a monosex male stock of fish fry (Oreochromis) was obtained. In 1998, the growth of Azolla-fed O. niloticus was monitored and, in parallel, plant production on the embankments was assessed. The production of Clarias fry was mastered, and the study of the growth of these catfishes fed Azolla diets is still under way. To facilitate the practical use of the results obtained during this project, an experiment on the growth of O. niloticus fed Azolla, in relation to plant production in rural areas, is in progress (at the integrated fish farming facilities of Muganza).