Description

Abstract: An experiment was conducted in rice fi eld plots each of 30 m2 to determine the appropriate

combination of feeding and fertilization regimes for the giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (De Man. 1979) cultured along with rice in rice fi elds. There were four treatments: rice

culture only with regular fertilization (A, control); rice-prawn integrated culture with regular fertilization (B); rice-prawn integrated culture with basal fertilization and commercial feed (C); and rice-prawn integrated culture with regular fertilization and commercial feed (D). Juvenile prawns of 1.5-g size were stocked on the third day after rice transplantation at a density of 2 prawns m-2 and fed twice daily at 5% reducing to 2% of body weight during the experiment. The rice yield in treatment D (0.42 kg m-2) was signifi cantly higher than that in other treatments (0.34, 0.36, 0.34 kg m-2 in treatments A, B, C respectively). Prawns grew signifi cantly faster (P < 0.05) in treatments C and D (23.8