Could fish be a secret ingredient for rice farmers to avoid disease and make more money?

Momy Seck Ndao has been planning for today for months.

The environmental engineer is standing beside two swimming-pool sized ponds, every lined with a black tarp and filled with a whole lot of tilapia. Two of her colleagues trudge via the pond in waders, making an attempt to corral the fish with a web.

“For this mission, we’d like lots of tilapia, about 1,900,” says Ndao, as she eyes the horizon. They’re in a race in opposition to the rising solar.

It is nonetheless comparatively low however will quickly warmth this a part of the Senegal River valley to about 100 F, sizzling sufficient to bake the fish on the way in which to their ultimate vacation spot — a rice discipline.

There, these tilapia — and a handful of different fish — are the important thing components in an bold experiment. Ndao and her colleagues are attempting to see if including fish to rice farms may also help resolve three issues plaguing rice farmers, and Senegal extra broadly — meals insecurity, poverty and a debilitating illness.

To Ndao, it is a significantly Senegalese resolution.

The nationwide dish, thieboudienne, is a tasty combo of rice and fish. “We eat it every single day. So in the event you develop rice and fish in the identical space, you simply want so as to add greens,” Ndao says with a simple giggle, “and you should have your each day dish.”

Fishing expedition

However first, Ndao and her group must catch these tilapia and schlep them to the farm.

As soon as sufficient fish are concentrated by the online right into a writhing mass, different colleagues swoop in with smaller buckets to scoop them up. Rapidly, however cautious to not spill, they shuttle the buckets to a giant inexperienced tank on the mattress of a pickup.

It takes about an hour to load up the fish. Kayla Kauffmann, a Stanford illness ecologist on the mission, rushed over to the truck simply after the tank was sealed. “I wished to look in earlier than they closed it,” she says. “It is fairly the operation.”

At present’s operation started earlier than daybreak and is much from over.

On the outskirts of the coastal city of Saint Louis, the group — over a dozen scientists, aquaculture technicians and interns — set off in the dead of night. Earlier than reaching the tilapia farm in Dagana, about 80 miles northeast throughout the huge expanse of the Sahel, a number of the caravan peeled off to catch just a few bigger fish of a distinct species, which would be the major disease-fighters.

The subsequent and ultimate cease, about 20 minutes away, is Keur Mbaye, the place the fish shall be launched to a rice discipline. There, all these fish will dwell and poop, fertilizing the crop.

It is one in every of 60 fields throughout the area the place the group, along side native farmers, shall be making an attempt out this potential win-win-win resolution. To Ndao, the stakes are excessive.

“The potential is right here,” she says. “Every thing will rely upon what they’ll see on this experiment, what they’ll be taught.”

Harmful worms, protecting fish

Rice manufacturing is booming alongside the winding Senegal river, which types the border with Mauritania to the north. The immense Sahara is only a hundred-some miles away. Traditionally, the semi-arid local weather meant that farming might solely occur in the course of the wet season. However dam building beginning within the Eighties helped provide a steadier stream of water for crops.

Knee-deep in a Keur Mbaye rice discipline, Kauffman holds out in her gloved hand a tiny instance of what else the dams allowed to flourish — freshwater snails that may carry the disabling illness often known as schistosomiasis.

Small snails like this one can carry the worms that unfold schistosomiasis.

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“The hyperlink between dam building and schistosomiasis is absolutely sturdy,” she says. “After a dam is constructed, far more individuals find yourself with schisto.”

The illness, which afflicts greater than 200 million individuals a yr, is brought on by a parasitic worm that spends a part of its life cycle in freshwater snails. There, the worm replicates itself, producing hundreds of parasites that slink again into the water.

“They then attempt to discover an individual that is wading within the water, like a rice farmer, and burrow into that individual’s pores and skin,” says Kauffmann. Finally, they lay eggs within the intestines or urinary tract, inflicting a slew of issues from abdomen ache to bladder most cancers.

Earlier than dam building, freshwater snail numbers have been saved in examine by migratory prawns that eat snails. However the dam “minimize off their migration route,” says Kauffman. Fewer prawns meant extra snails, and extra schistosomiasis. Now, this a part of Senegal has among the many highest burdens of schistosomiasis anyplace, affecting a couple of third of kids.

For rice farmers, the illness has develop into an occupational hazard. Dgibi Dia has farmed these fields in Keur Mbaye for many years. Standing close to the pickup truck holding practically 2,000 fish, he says he is had a number of painful bouts with schistosomiasis.

Dgibi Dia is a rice farmer who has had a number of painful bouts with schistosomiasis.

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“This at all times occurs to us since we’re within the water more often than not,” he says. Every time, he and his fellow farmers get the identical kind of signs.

“We can’t sleep at night time due to the itching,” he says. Abdomen ache is accompanied by “gurgling sounds,” he says, “as if we had one thing operating contained in the abdomen.” He additionally experiences bloody diarrhea and fever, and signs can persist for months.

“It is troublesome,” he says. “When you’re sick, you can not work correctly.”

There are medicine to deal with schistosomiasis, however Dia says they’re onerous to come back by. Abdoulaye Ndiaye, one other farmer, agrees, including that they are typically too costly. And whereas the medicine can remedy a single bout, they do not stop re-infection.

“We dwell within the fields,” Ndiaye says. “Prevention is for our profit.”

Rice farmer Abdoulaye Ndiaye hopes that including fish to farms may also help him keep away from getting schistosomiasis.

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That is the place the fish are available in — as snail superpredators.

Tilapia might eat the occasional snail, however that is not their major job. The group is including just a few heavyweights — African bonytongue — to every discipline to be superpredators. The three-foot-long fish are often known as heterotis.

“It is a species which might eat lots of snails per day,” says Ndao.

African bonytongue fish, additionally known as heterotis, can eat lots of snails in a day.

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Thrashing fish

Including them to rice fields, she hopes, will result in fewer snails, and thus much less schistosomiasis. Getting them into the fields proves difficult. One of many heterotis leapt out of its container onto the dusty floor. Ndao needed to rush over to seize maintain of the beating fish with each arms.

“Heterotis may be very, very loopy,” she says, “very onerous to catch.”

Ultimately, she succeeds. After checking to ensure the water within the rice fields is appropriate for the fish, the group begins shuttling each the few heterotis, and the a whole lot of tilapia, to the water in buckets.

Ndeye Mbaye, a part of the analysis group, releases tilapia right into a rice discipline. The roughly 600 tilapia added to this discipline will fertilize the rice with their feces, and assist feed the farmers.

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Gently, the buckets are lowered into the water, so the fish can acclimate to the temperature. “We do it slowly and let the fish go by themselves.”

A number of minutes later, their scales flash within the solar because the fish disappear into the shoots of rising rice. There, the heterotis will eat snails. And all these tilapia, about 600 per discipline, have a distinct job — pooping.

“The feces of the fish is an important pure fertilizer for the rice,” says Ndao, and will enhance yield.

Many advantages

Rice manufacturing could also be booming within the Senegal River Valley, however it’s not sufficient to satisfy the county’s urge for food. Because of this, Senegal imports about half the rice it consumes.

Rice fields within the Senegal River Valley.

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“We have to enhance the yield, to acquire meals safety,” says Ndao. Fertilizer can enhance yields, however is usually costly for farmers and the chemical substances can runoff into rivers and lakes. Including fish to farms might be a extra sustainable strategy to enhance yields, says Ndao. As a ultimate bonus, the farmers can harvest a number of the fish to eat for themselves or promote.

These advantages have helped maintain fish and rice aquaculture throughout Asia for hundreds of years, however it’s fairly uncommon in Africa. Not most of the farmers Ndao talks with have heard of it. She highlights these doable advantages when making an attempt to recruit farmers.

Dgibi Dia was drawn to the mission for a lot of causes, however particularly the fish. “There are not any fish on this space,” he says, gesturing round his fields. “We now have a scarcity. We pray that will probably be a hit.”

There’s purpose to suppose will probably be. Over the previous a number of years, Ndao and her colleagues tried rising fish and rice collectively on a smaller variety of farms. One in all them, close to Saint Louis, belongs to Ousmane Diallo.

Someday, “madam Ndao got here to see us whereas we have been working within the rice fields and defined the mission,” he says. He’d by no means heard of rising rice and fish collectively, however was sport to strive. As soon as fish have been launched to the farm, Ndao checked in typically to see how issues have been going. It is a main a part of her job.

“I name them each two days, till harvest,” says Ndao. With dozens of farmers to trace, which means lots of time on the cellphone. “My colleagues, they name me Sonatel, the nationwide telecom company,” she says laughing, as a result of “I am at all times on the cellphone.”

Diallo says each time his cellphone rang, “it is normally her. She may be very decided.”

A blueprint for fulfillment

That type of willpower is crucial for Ndao and her group’s final objective — scaling up. This yr, which means greater than doubling the variety of fields they’re learning to get a fuller understanding of what rising rice and fish collectively can do.

Researchers Momy Seck Ndao and Kayla Kauffman seek for snails within the rice fields. The analysis group is measuring snail density earlier than and after including fish to farms, to see whether or not the fish can cut back the snail-borne parasite that causes schistosomiasis.

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A smaller pilot research, revealed earlier this yr, hints at the advantages. Ndao and her colleagues discovered that including fish to farms elevated rice yields by about 25%, considerably boosted earnings and barely lowered snail numbers. However the pattern measurement was comparatively small, so large questions stay, says Ndao. “There are such a lot of issues to do.”

Over the approaching months, the group shall be utilizing drones to extra carefully monitor rice development, taking extra detailed measurements of adjustments in snail numbers to grasp the influence on schistosomiasis, and gathering extra info on what farmers are literally doing with the fish.

Answering all these questions is essential for understanding simply how large a distinction fish-rice aquaculture might make. In flip, Ndao says the outcomes will assist make the case to extra farmers to strive placing fish on their farms, and hopefully, maintain the follow. For the mission to make a significant dent in lowering illness, bettering meals safety and farmer livelihoods, the follow must be expanded.

The farmers who’ve participated within the mission to this point supply a compelling private case.

Abou Diallo was capable of paint and renovate his home from the additional cash he earned after including fish to his rice farm boosted crop yields.

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“I make extra earnings, and promote way more rice than earlier than,” says Abou Diallo, standing outdoors his freshly painted turquoise-and-white cement home, not removed from Saint Louis.

Earlier than including fish to his farm, Abou Diallo might promote about 60 baggage of rice a season. After including fish, he sells between 90 and 95 baggage, he says. “It has modified my life.” The additional funds allowed him to purchase a flock of sheep and renovate his house, he says, together with giving it a brand new coat of paint. He was capable of eat and promote his personal fish, which he says style higher than these he will get from the ocean. “There’s a large distinction.”