BioQuest | Vol. 1, No. 1 (July 2017)

34

Agriculture has been the basic source of

subsistence for mankind over thousands of years and it

provides livelihood to half of the world population.

Indian agriculture is known for its multi-functionalities

of providing employment, livelihood, food, nutrient and

ecological securities. India has basically an agriculture-

driven economy where, agriculture and allied activities

contribute about 13.7 per cent to the gross domestic

product and the growth rate of agriculture is around 1.9

per cent (2012-13). Indian agriculture employs 51.1 per

cent of the total work force and it is the major source of

poverty alleviation, empowerment of the agrarian folk

and it is the corner stone of development for India. As a

result of sustained efforts food grain production has

increased from 50.8 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 265

million tones in 2013-2014.

The population of India has already crossed

1.28 billion and is increasing by 14-15 million per

annum and is expected to reach 1.37 billion in 2025.

National policies and programs are framed towards

meeting the needs of growing population. Thus,

production of food grains per unit area has to be almost

doubled from the present level. This could be made

possible by intensive cultivation in irrigated and rainfed

areas. The country has to produce more food and other

agricultural commodities under the conditions of

diminishing per capita arable land and irrigation water

resources coupled with increasing biotic and abiotic

stresses.

Need for more food and other commodities

have to be met through higher yields per unit of land,

water, energy and time. Fortunately, most of our states

lie in tropics and so are blessed with abundant solar

energy thus making cropping possible round the year.

In the scientific era of agriculture, cropping systems,

genotypes, geometry of planting and management

practices are designed to increase the productivity per

unit area per unit time, simultaneously making efficient

use of available resources and stabilizing yields.

Despite of scope, it is very difficult to increase

production in India, because majority (84.97%) of the

farming community belongs to small and marginal

farmers having only 44.31 per cent of the total

operational holdings, specialized farming may not be

viable and sustainable in the long run (Singh et al.,

2010). The average size of the farm in India has

reduced due to fragmentation, rapid urbanization,

creation of infrastructure facilities like roads, railway

tracks, dams etc. The small and marginal farmers are

unable to meet domestic requirements with the income

from cropping alone. With gradual decline in farm size,

it has become increasingly difficult to produce enough

food and other farm produces for the family. Further,

with the constrained horizontal expansion of land only

vertical expansion is possible by integrating various

farm enterprises requiring less space and time ensuring

periodic income to the farmer (Behera et al., 2001). The

integrated farming systems, therefore assumes greater

importance for sound management of farm resources to

enhance the farm productivity, reduce the

environmental degradation, improve the quality of life

of resource poor farmers and to maintain the

sustainability.

The integrated farming system concept actually

follows the famous sayings of Lord Buddha, “The wise

live without injuring nature is as the bee drinks honey

without harming the flower”. Integrated farming system

is an “Agriculture that is sustainable and sufficiently

Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) for livelihood security of Indian

farmers

Vinodakumar SN1*, Desai BK

2, Singh BK

1, Hazarika U

1, Veeranna D

1

1Central Muga Eri Research and Training Institute, Central Silk Board, Jorhat, Assam (India)

2Department of Agronomy, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, (India)

* Corresponding author email: vin3234@rediffmail.com

BioQuest | Vol. 1, No. 1 (July 2017)

35

productive and allows the welfare of man, animal and

plant”. Integrated farming system approach is not only a

reliable way of obtaining fairly high productivity with

substantial fertilizer economy but also concept of

ecological soundness leading to sustainable agriculture

and also deriving maximum compatibility and

replenishment of organic matter by way of proper

recycling of organic residues/ wastes obtained through

integration of enterprise like fishery, poultry, goat,

milch animal, mushroom and sericultural activities

(Swaminathan, 1987).

Most of the farming systems in India used to

rely on organic matter recycling for maintaining soil

productivity. Livestock have played a key role in these

processes. Existing farming systems across the country

indicates existence of 19 predominant farming systems

- a majority of them (85%) have crop + livestock as the

important components. The cycling of biomass (natural

vegetation and crop residues) by animals (cattle, sheep

and goat) through their excreta (manure and urine) that

fertilizes the soil is important in arid and semi arid

environments. The viability of these systems requires

that animals are kept and maintained in good rainfall

years with the fodder produced in the system and sold

during years of poor rainfall and crop production to get

some cash for expenses.

The challenges of food security are intimately

related to those of environmental and ecological

security. The present predicament demands a

continuous increase in productivity and total output,

while ensuring that the quality of resource base is

maintained and enhanced. The major lacuna in the past

approaches has been that conservation and production

strategies were independent of each other. Integration

of conservation and production strategies taking into

account the socio-economic realities of the farming

systems by adopting integrated farming system

approach is highly desirable. The present agricultural

scenario of the country demands the development of

need based and location specific farming system

models. Therefore, there is an urgent need to intensify

and diversify the crop enterprise with livestock to

ensure food and livelihood security of resource poor

farmer.

Integrated farming systems gave 6 - 8 fold

increase in net returns in improved farming systems

with value of household consumption (produced within

farm) increasing by 51.4 per cent. The per day profit of

marginal and small households can be increased by 69.2

per cent. If IFS models and allied farming system

packages are planned in proper way it gives monthly

net income of Rs. 25,000 ha-1

in irrigated and Rs.

10,000 ha-1

in rainfed systems for marginal and small

farmers (Singh et al., 2010). The above factors have

inevitably accelerated the process of integrating

livestock into crop production, as the crop residues as

feed and manure as nutrient source are becoming

increasingly valuable. However, the challenge of

assuring the sustainability of the integrated farming

system is how to integrate animal production with crop

production.

Various types of farming systems are being

adopted by the farmers of India. However, scientific

fine tuning is needed so as to ensure linkage of

components for proper recycling, viability,

productivity, employment generation, food security,

sustainability, diversity and economic upliftment of

farmers.

Norman Borlaug, Norman Borlaug, Norman Borlaug, Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green

Revolution", who received the Nobel Peace

Prize in 1970, credited with saving over a

billion people from starvation, involved the

development of high-yielding varieties of

cereal grains, expansion of irrigation

infrastructure, modernization of management

techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds,

synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.

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