Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, home to many ethnic groups, inherits an ancient and charming traditional Chinese agriculture -- vast expanses of mountain slopes carved into rice paddies where rice, fish and ducks flourish in co-existence. The agricultural feat of growing one season of rice, keeping a batch of fish and raising a batch of ducks in the same rice paddy has been inherited for thousands of years in Congjiang. The rice-fish-duck ecosystem in the county was listed as a pilot project for the protection of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in 2011, and became the first batch of important agricultural cultural heritages in China in 2013.
Also read: Few devoted people are keeping alive the 1,000-year-old Japanese traditional craft of Sanuki Kagari Temari With the start of China's traditional solar term Grain Rain, or Guyu, agricultural activities will kick into high gear on the terraced fields. Farmers put rice seedlings into the rice fields, and meanwhile, put some fish fry. When the fish fry grow to two to three fingers wide, the newly-hatched ducklings will also be put into the fields.
The rice fields provide natural food for fish and ducks, and the fish and ducks remove pests and weeds from the fields, greatly reducing the use of pesticides and herbicides. Fish and duck dung provides natural organic fertilizer for rice. Rice, fish and ducks are harvested from one rice field at the same time.
The county has made full us.