Vergenoegd Winery(South Africa) is handling pests using a unique solution; ducks. These ducks enable the winery to be pesticide-free.
Video: https://youtu.be/H6Ehoxu9QY8
The reason for this is that ducks love to eat all sorts of garden pests: including slugs, snails, mosquitoes, ants, and more.
“You may also be wondering: Why ducks and not chickens? While it’s true that chickens can help to keep bugs at a low in your garden, they also have a habit of being a little less delicate around garden plants than ducks do. Chickens love fresh greenery and will be more than happy to eat your homegrown lettuce, whereas ducks will focus less on your hard work and more on the bugs in your yard.” | The Spruce
Similarly to the winery, ducks are also often employed to help with rice paddies. The ducks not only help with pests and fertilization, but their paddling helps both aerate the water and kick up mud(the increased oxygen and decreased light can cut down on algae or weed growth).
As an added benefit, the eggs and/or meat can be eaten. I know that will upset many of you but the added financial benefit of that is further incentivizing farmers to switch from herbicides and pesticides, to ducks.
“Another study done by Practical Action2 concluded that the duck-rice farming technology led to several socio-economic and environmental benefits. The ducks were introduced into the rice fields 10-20 days after rice was planted until the flowering stages. The study also found out that this form of farming was better in rice production than others as it led to decreased production costs, high yields achievement, had benefits for the environment and led to increased income. Further, it’s stated that 20% higher yields can be achieved with the use of this system, 50% increase in income can be achieved as well as enhanced food security through the consumption of duck meat.” | Permaculture Research Institute
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ISdo-b7Lk
I wish someone had told my ducks that! They ate most of my garden. We had to fence it in to keep the ducks out. They even killed off the stuff they didn’t want – like strawberries – if it came up early in the spring and offered the possibility of being a tasty green.
A tiny bit of green would emerge and they'd be all: Duck#1: (bites plant) Ew! Duck#2: (bites plant) Yuk! Duck#3: (bites plant) Bleah! Duck#4: What were you guys eating? I want some.This would repeat each day for several days until spring brought everything to life.Haha! I think they just mean in comparison to chickens, which will even use their claws to scratch everything up while they forage, but your duck experience made me laugh. They sound like a handful of trouble.