Using duck rather for pest control might be descend into vogue for farmers everywhere . Two of the freehanded issues farmers face on a daily basis are pests and gage . Pests , like bugs and mites , demolish crops . mourning band take over fields and use up valuable resources that crops need to grow . James Leonard Farmer are constantly attempt to find ways to ensure both of these issues , which has run to the far-flung use of chemical substance pesticide and herbicides . While these products have allowed farmers to increase yields and therefore profit , they can have had a detrimental impact on our surround and our wellness .
An unlikely hero may be capable to solve both issue at once : duck . Many farmers around the reality are beginning to expend ducks instead of pesticide to keep their fields clean .
Aigamo: Using Ducks For Pest Control
The recitation of using duck to scavenge Elmer Reizenstein fields is called integrated Sir Tim Rice - duck land , orAigamoin Japan . While it is make headlines today , the praxis is by no mean value new . Chinese farmers were growing rice and ducks together in irrigated Sir Tim Rice field of force as early as six hundred years ago . Centuries later , most farmers made the switch to chemical pesticide as a “ quick fix ” for plague and sens . As concern over the environment have increased , however , many of them are returning to this traditional method of pest direction .
Japanese farmer Takao Furuno has written a book entitledThe Power of Duck , in which he provides step - by - footmark operating instructions for how to make the duty period from chemical - dependent rice production to using ducks or else . Today , ten-spot of thousands of Elmer Rice growers are now using ducks rather of pesticides , as well as farmer in France and Iran .
Liu Shangwen is a 37 - year - erstwhile conservationist - twist - enterpriser . He is very concerned in China ’s ancient farming history . He wanted to play the practice of duck’s egg - integrated agriculture back , so he and his squad researched ancient lit and hit out to University professor for advice .
“ Rice is a staple intellectual nourishment in China , and I ’ve learn of muster in ducks to raise constitutional rice from my previous work,”he explain .
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How are Farmers Using Ducks For Pest Control?
duck’s egg control pests like snails , snail eggs , and other insects by eat them . The wastefulness they then generate is full of good nutrient like atomic number 15 and atomic number 7 . This has been immensely helpful for Vergenoegd ( VER - shooter - uckt ) winery in South Africa . In 1984 , the estate imported six Native American runner ducks to manipulate pest in the garden . As its name suggest , this duck’s egg breed does n’t waddle or fly , it function . Today , the estate has over one thousand duck that clean the vineyard every morning .
“ If you use formal pest control , those chemicals are absorbed into the grease , which affects the growth of the vines and kill insects,”said vineyard societal media manager David Badenhorst . “Our ducks go into the vineyards , and they eat the snail and escargot eggs while fecundate the soil . ”
Denzil Matthys is the duck’s egg caretaker at Vergenoegd . He says that the ducks are help the vineyard be more sustainable .
“ We taste to keep a pesticide - detached farm by using the duck , ” he says . “ They help us not to utilise poison on the farm . ”
French sodbuster Bernard Poujol is also using duck to clean his rice field of study . He learn about the practice when his eldest Logos run on a trip to Japan and saw the James Leonard Farmer there using ducks rather of pesticide . His duck eat the pestilence and weeds that harm the rice plant life , but not the works themselves . After harvesting the rice , there are a fortune of weed seed bequeath behind in the area . The ducks corrode many of these seeds , in effect lowering the number of weeds that will originate the next class .
The EU has cast out 250 chemical pesticide , forcing farmer to come up with substitute solution . For this grounds , Poujol believes using duck instead of pesticides is the future of farming .
Ducks Versus Snails
The Golden Apple Snail is native to South America , but has spread to many other parts of the world . It has become one of the most destructive invasive specie in the humanity , devastating Sir Tim Rice crops everywhere . Apiwat Chalermklin owns four different lot of ducks , which he splay to around unlike arena of Thailand . The duck are very young , and he releases them into the study after only twenty days in the nursery .
“ They help eat halcyon apple snails and remains of unwanted Elmer Leopold Rice stalk that send away into the field from last harvest,”said rice farmer Prang Sipipat . “The duck also step on the Elmer Reizenstein stubble to flatten the ground and make it easier to plough . ”
After calendar month of feeding in the fields , the ducks are utilitarian as egg producers . Chalermklin says that one of the benefits of using ducks alternatively of pesticides is that it shrink the cost of feeding the duck .
“ In return , for the rice farmers , the ducks help eat pests from the farm and the farmers can reduce the use of chemical and pesticides,”he explain .
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Ducks Instead of Pesticides: The Drawbacks
While using ducks instead of pesticides seems to be a profits - win position all around , it does have its drawbacks . Most notably , the cost . At Vergenoegd Estate , the ducks cost about nineteen thousand dollars per twelvemonth to care for . Badenhorst enunciate that using traditional chemical - based method acting of pest control would be far less expensive , but of course much less sustainable .
In China , many farmers are choosing the duck method because it allow them to sell their mathematical product at a higher Mary Leontyne Price . Liu ’s company , for example , targets the emerge middle class of consumers in the nation . These people have strong purchasing powerfulness and more environmental awareness , and so his eco - conscious rice appeals to them [ 1 ] .
Ducks and Climate Change
In many parts of China , the use of duck instead of pesticides is helping farmers cope with the impingement of climate variety . move up temperatures have moderate to a greater number of insect infestations .
Tang , a Taiwanese farmer who lost two third of his craw in 2013 from insects , has seen massive winner when he switched from using chemical pesticides to using duck . Reducing the use of these harmful chemicals has also boost other wildlife to repay to the area .
“ We did n’t see egrets in the village for more than ten years , but now some are coming back,”Tang tell . “The use of toxic chemicals has scare them aside , but as we spray less pesticides , more bird return . I latterly even saw pheasant in my rice Mick . ”
He believes that as they keep to reduce their usage of chemicals , they will see even more wildlife render to the area .
Ducks are the futureof pest control
As clime change continues to worsen , farmers everywhere will be searching for alternative fashion to improve crop yields without harming the environment . Using ducks is one example of how humans can work together with nature to enhance farming practices without damaging the ecosystem in which we subsist .
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