Aquaculture ponds are integrated with other activities on the farm: nutrients in the pond come from the wastes of pigs, ducks, and chickens, and the pond bottom provides food and fertilizer for gardens. Such integrated aquaculture keeps farmers'production costs low, which is particularly important for farmers where the cost of transporting their products to market is likely to be relatively high, due to their distance from urban centers.
A combination of food-producing technologies is required to support a large human population where there is a limited amount of arable land. Today integrated farming systems – combining agriculture, aquaculture, animal husbandry, and waste treatment technologies – are in use in South and Southern Asia and China, as well as in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Socio-cultural systems of ancient Hawaii supported expansive aquaculture-agriculture networks. The ancient fishponds and 'traps' were integrated into taro agriculture.
In West Java there is a group of people whose social world is considered to be almost completely based on traditional manners and custom. This particular community is the Kasepuhan people. They live on the slope of Mt. Halimun in the southern part of West Java. The Kasepuhan people still practice swidden agriculture, as well as wet rice agriculture. Until now they have refused the government proposal to change the planting and harvesting of rice from one to two times a year. This proposal is in conflict with their traditional belief. However, the government looks at this refusal as a protest to their agriculture development policy. During the period of rest in the rice paddy field, fish are raised. This process brings economic as well as ecological benefits for the Kasepuhan people.
Integrated aquaculture in the Peruvian Amazon has many benefits. It provides a source of nutrition and income for farmers who might otherwise engage in a kind of agriculture that would damage the rain forest. A further benefit is that the ponds are helping to maintain the native Amazonian fish species.