Something like the Vietnamese VAC (garden/pond/livestock) system[1] is the ideal in terms of efficiency and complete nutrition in my opinion:

> In many villages, 50-80 percent of families have the full VAC system. Figures show that 30-60 percent of income of most village families may come from the system; in many cases, it may be 100 percent.

> The pond is constructed close to the house so that the domestic and kitchen wastes are drained into the fishpond. The livestock pens and garden are also situated near the pond. The 1000-5000 m2 garden includes a variety of vegetables (i.e. green onion, sweet potato, watercress, etc.) and fruits (i.e. banana, orange, peach, apricot, etc.) and other crops, including sugarcane, tea and cassava. This provides a mix of perennial and annual crops.

This is all on generally less than an acre (1 acre = 4000 square meters)! Fish, crops, and livestock in one self-contained system.

[1] https://www.fao.org/3/y1187e/y1187e10.htm

Are there pictures of this? I can't seem to find any. I'm on an an acre and would love to see how others use a similar sized portion of land to do such a thing. I might get some ideas.

Thank you for sharing this! Are there additional resources you would recommend checking out to learn more about different agricultural approaches like this one?

Where do the fish come from in these systems when they drain the ponds annually?

Unsure if these people specifically do it, but usually in both small and big productions we have a separate breeding pond.