Water quality in fish polyculture integrated with pig raising

Abstract

The polyculture of fish based on natural food was the most efficient model found in Santa Catarina
for the development of this activity in small rural properties. The use of the available organic matter of the
agricultural activities as source of nutrients for the natural food production for fish made fish farming
economically viable. Although the polyculture integrated with pig raising can bring environmental gains through
the transformation of nutrients already available in the farms, this was considered for a long time as a highly
polluting activity due to the use of piggery wastes as an input to the production. The objective of this study was
to analyse the physical-chemical quality of the cultivation water and efluents generated by the fish polyculture
integrated with pig raising and to compare them with the existing environmental legislation. The concentrations
of the physical-chemical variables in the efluents were inside the limits tolerated by the environmental legislation
of Santa Catarina State.