Organic Rice-Duck Farming

In South Korea, organic farming such as rice-duck raising is being promoted by the Korean Rice Farming Association (Kim Bok Kwan, personal communication). Rice grown organically without pesticides commands a higher market price per kg, about 40-60 %, compared to rice grown with chemicals. According to Kim (1997), the number of rice-duck farmers and areas being farmed in South Korea showed an increasing trend from 1993 to 1997. South Korea¥s rice-duck cultivation is basically patterned from the Japanese practice. Farmers raise a hybrid meat type duck at a density of 200-350 birds/ha released in the ricefields two weeks after rice transplanting. Azolla growing naturally in ricefields serves as food for the ducks. Apart from the on-farm feed resources consumed by ducks, supplements in the form of commercial feed, rice bran and vegetable scraps, and kitchen scraps are fed to the ducks in sheds built near the ricefields.