Azolla

Azolla Ponds at Acres Wild

(Photo by Mansoor Khan)

Azolla is a water fern that grows on the surface in ponds. Azolla has 50-60% protein on dry weight basis, rich in almost all essential amino acids, vitamin A, vitamin B-complex, beta-carotene and minerals viz. Calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper and magnesium.

Azolla is emerging as an alternate sustainable cow feed in India. Due to lack of fodder due to uncertain climatic conditions, the government is encouraging the harvesting of azolla as it is not water intensive and can be done with less space and cost.

A Japanese farmer in Kyushu, Japan, Mr. T. Furuno has been practicing rice and hybrid duck culture. He tried hard not to use pesticide in rice cultivation. The most difficult task was weeding. He introduced hybrid duck primarily for weeding purpose. The duck effectively made a weeding job by disturbing soil surface. He found the duck contributed a lot to rice cultivation. Now, rice-duck culture is widely practiced in organic rice farming. Primarily for providing nitrogen nutrient, azolla was introduced to this system. Azolla provided nitrogen nutrient for rice and protein for duck, and contributed to the suppression of weed. Duck, on the other hand, contributed to azolla by eradicating azolla insect pest, and spreading azolla by its movement. Duck's excreta may supply phosphorus to azolla. This rice-duck-azolla system is now being adopted by organic farming farmers.

About Azolla at LEISA (Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture) Magazine.