Integrated fish farming is a system of producing fish in combination with other agricultural/livestock farming operations centered around the fish pond. The farming sub-systems e.g. fish, crop and livestock are linked to each other in such a way that the byproducts/wastes from one sub-system become the valuable inputs to another sub-system and thus ensures total utilization of land and water resources of the farm resulting in maximum and diversified farm output with minimum financial and labour costs.
In a proper fish, crop and livestock integrated farming system, the possible inter sub-system interactions are - excreta and waste feed from livestock sub-system act as manure and feed for fish as well as can be used as manure for crop land. By-product/wastes of crop can be used as feed, manure for the fish pond and as feed for livestock. Nutrient rich bottom silt and water of pond can be a good source of fertilizers for the crop land. It thus appears that the different sub-systems in an integrated system are beneficially inter-linked to each other in a limited area, minimizing the production costs but resulting in a diversified outputs viz. fish, meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits, fuel wood and fodder which are the basic need of a farm family.