Presentation by panelists Alvin Lopez and Sudhir Yadav on 'Back to the Future: Integrating rice-fish systems for building resilience' during World Water Week, Thursday, 26 August 2021.

2. Session: Back to the Future:
Integrating rice and fish for building
resilience.
Influencing investments to improve
water and land use to deliver on the
SDGs and national development
priorities
26 August 2021
Alvin Lopez
Senior Natural Resources and Agriculture
Specialist
Cambodia

3. Key questions I will attempt to address
1. What is ADB’s approach to supporting the SDGs ?
2. What has been the impact of COVID-19 on food security, nutrition, and food
system resilience?
3. To what extent has ADB incorporated rice-fish system priorities into project
investment project design?
4. ADB’s investments in water resources and agriculture in Cambodia?
5. What is required for upscaling investments in better water and land use
especially for rice-fish systems?

4. ADB’s approach to the supporting the
SDGs

5. Impact of COVID 19 on food security and nutrition
in the Asia Pacific (ADB 2021, in prep)
• Threatening the achievement of
SDG 2 (hunger and malnutrition)
• Impacted the ability for consumers
to access healthy diets.
• The growth of agriculture and
livestock sectors, and the demand
for animal-source foods have
increased the risk of environmental
degradation, climate change, and
zoonotic spillover events.
• The recovery from the COVID-19
pandemic presents an opportunity
to build resilience in food systems.
• A more integrated food system
approach is required to enhance
natural capital, public health,
climate resilience, and nutrition
security in the medium to long term.
Prevalence of insufficient food consumption in selected
countries in the Asian Pacific Region (April 2021–July 2021)
Source: World Food Program Hunger Map 2021

6. Inland fisheries and rice-fish
systems in ADB irrigation
investments operations
• Fish a major contributor in terms of income,
livelihoods, food security, and nutrition value.
• Irrigation schemes using diversion/ weirs disrupt
the natural migration of fish
• ADB (2020) acknowledges that incorporating
fisheries and integrating fishways in irrigation
investments can strengthen the resilience of
aquatic life to the impacts of climate change by
maintaining the natural habitat.
• Integrating investment in fishways and fisheries
can contribute to SDGs, specifically.
• SDG 1 (No Poverty),
• SDG 2 (Zero Hunger),
• SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being),
• SDG 13 (Climate Action),
• SDG 14 (Life Below Water).
• Inland fisheries are directly or indirectly
related to almost all the SDGs.
• Can help achieve ADB’s Strategy 2030
operational priorities (OPs).
• OP 1 (addressing remaining poverty and
reducing inequalities);
• OP 3 (tackling climate change, building
climate and disaster resilience, and
enhancing environmental sustainability);
• OP 5 (promoting rural development and
food security).

7. Construction of the Houay Mak Hiew Fishway (Lao PDR)
Implementation: 2021-2022
Financing: $575,000 grant from WFPF-NDL
Approach/design: The That Luang Marsh in Vientiane
Capital, which drains into the Mekong River, provides
a key livelihood to around 17,000 riparian people
living on agriculture and fisheries. The water levels in
the Marsh are controlled by flood-regulating
structures, which enable water storage for irrigation
in dry season. However, these structures block
movement of fish from the Mekong River into the
Marsh and back into the river. The project will design,
build, and operate the Houay Mak Hiew fish
passageway that allows fish and other aquatic species
to pass these structures.
Progress: A preliminary concept design of the fishway
passage is prepared and approved by MAF. The
detailed design is being finalized and the construction
of the fishway is expected to start from November
2021 and completed by Q1 2022

8. Opportunities: What are ADB’s investments in water resources and agriculture in
Cambodia?

9. Water Resources Management
Sector Development Program
Climate-Resilient Rice
Commercialization Sector
Development Program
Uplands Irrigation and Water
Resources Management Sector
Project
Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction
and Smallholder Development
Project
Climate-Friendly Agribusiness
Value Chains Sector Project
Irrigated Agriculture
Improvement Project
Agricultural Value Chain
Competitiveness and Safety
Enhancement Project
Agriculture and
Natural Resources
Projects in Cambodia
(2010-2025)

10. What is required for upscaling investments
in better water and land use especially for
rice-fish systems?
§ Enabling conditions and policy environment
§ Inter-sectoral coordination.
§ A successful pilot.
§ Role of multi-lateral and bi-lateral development agencies and a coherent
approach.
§ Capacity.
§ Retrofitting vs. new development.
§ Prioritization within the broader landscape.
§ Get into the game early
§ Strengthening environmental due diligence processes for investment
project.
§ Clear demonstration of the economics associated with the investment.
§ Thinking beyond national boundaries
9

11. THANK YOU!!
alopez@adb.org
10

12. Around one in ten children are
born with low birth weight, and in
South Asia, it is one in four, and
approximately 45% of deaths
among children under five are
linked to undernutrition….
World Health Organization

13. Globally, 1 in 9 people is
hungry or undernourished
Higher temperatures are an equal or
even greater contributor to child
malnutrition and low quality diets than
the traditional culprits of poverty,
inadequate sanitation, and poor
education.
Niles et al (2020) Environmental Research Letter
Climate change

14. Sudhir Yadav, Robert Caudwell, Michael Akester, Mark Dubois, Shakuntala Thilsted, Sarah Freed, Rica Flor, Sanjiv De Silva
Why integrated rice-fish systems are
important for building resilience?

15. Mega-delta
of Asia
Ganges delta
Irrawaddy delta
Mekong delta
Topography of South and Southeast Asia (elevation from SRTM)

16. Typology of rice-fish system
Freed et al, 2020

17. Ricefield Fisheries in Cambodia
Community Fish Refuges (CFR)
• are community co-managed ponds, within the village
rice growing area.
• Fish and other aquatic animals can take refuge and
survive extended dry periods in these CFRs before
returning to adjacent rice fields via connecting
channels, when water levels rise.
• A CFR thus acts as a seasonal refuge for fish and
other aquatic animals to survive, grow and reproduce.

18. Opportunity for resilient integrated
agroecological based farming system
Wet season
Dry season

19. Opportunity of reducing environmental pollutant
Two-thirds of agricultural land globally are at
risk of pesticide pollution
pngimage.net

20. Rice-fish culture in Myanmar
• Rice production with no fish refuse (BMP N) = 5.8 t/ha
• Rice production with13% fish refuse = 5.0 t/ha
• Fish production= 0.9 t/ha
Variables Rice Rice-fish
Gross margin (USD/ha) 772 1092
Profit from rice-fish 321 USD/ha
41% increase in profit
Compartison with neighouing farmers (n=7)
• Rice production = 4.7 t/ha
• Gross margin = 471 USD/ha 132 % increase in profit!

21. Enhancing biodiversity
•higher numbers of predators (545 specimens) than pest species (286) in the
dry season, whereas more pest species (364) than predators (205) during the
wet season.

22. Adaptation to climate change
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

23. Challenges to rice-fish system
Year Fingerling
stocked
(kg)
Cost of
fingerling
(Tk)
Partial
harvest
(kg)
Consumption
(kg)
Sell
(kg)
Selling price
(Tk)
Income (sale+
consumption)
(Tk)
2015 2370 311890 3165 503 2662 265087 315177
2016 620 109800 411 120 291 20370 28770
2017 655 97250 550 333 216 21330 54288
2018 492 69575 788 555 233 24463 82854
• Instability of system performance in community based model

24. Suitability assessment
A digital surface model (DSM) at 30 meter resolution
using Shuttle Radar Terrain Mission (SRTM).
Analysis shows a flat
topography with majority of
the slope ranging between
0.01 and 0.02%: indicating the
whole watershed is suitable
for rice+fish system
Drone imageries (with a resolution of < 1m)
Analysis suggest a gradual
sloping terrain with elevation
ranging from 68 to 80 meters-
which indicates risks of
instability of rice+fish

25. Challenges (and opportunities) to
rice-fish systems
• High initial investment costs for rice-fish co-culture
• Land suitability
• Land and water governance- policy and social arrangements
• Decision support tools
• Post-harvest, storage and value chain for fisheries

26. Thank you
Let us work together to build a resilient,
nutritious, and sustainable food system
for ourselves and future generations.