Partnering for Climate-Smart Farming: Fish in the Fields™ Featured by USDA SARE
Our Fish in the Fields™ program was recently highlighted by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program for its success in integrating fish into rice fields—showing the potential to reduce methane emissions by up to two-thirds.
In partnership with the University of Arkansas, we're exploring how co-cultivating fish in winter-flooded rice fields can reduce methane emissions and create new income opportunities for farmers. Supported by a Southern SARE On-Farm Research Grant, this three-year project tests how introducing fish during the winter fallow period impacts both environmental and economic vitality.
Led by bioengineer Dr. Benjamin Runkle, the University of Arkansas team applied our model to large-scale rice systems. Early results show that winter-flooded fields can sustain healthy fish populations and may yield lower methane emissions than expected.
By blending traditional ecological knowledge with modern research, Fish in the Fields™ is proving that agriculture can work in harmony with nature, not at its expense.
