Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) leads the programme Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS), which helps identify ways to mitigate threats faced by these systems and their people and enhance the benefits derived from these dynamic systems.
GIAHS: Rice Terraces in Southern Mountainous and Hilly areas, China
Image: Floating Agricultural Field
Image: 崇义客家梯田春耕图
Image: Subsistent Farming Southern China
A rice-fish system is a polyculture practice that integrates rice agriculture with aquaculture, most commonly with freshwater fish. It is based on a mutually beneficial relationship between rice and fish in the same agroecosystem. The system was recognized by the FAO in 2002 as one of the first Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems.
Rice and tilapia fish polyculture, Java
Common carp may have been the first fish in rice-fish systems.
Rice-fish farming landscape in Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India