[INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM]

At present, the farmers concentrate mainly on crop production which is subjected to a high degree of uncertainty in income and employment to the farmers. In this contest, it is imperative to evolve suitable strategy for augmenting the income of a farm.

Integration of various agricultural enterprises viz., cropping, animal husbandry, fishery, forestry etc. have great potentialities in the agricultural economy. These enterprises not only supplement the income of the farmers but also help in increasing the family labour employment.

1.The integrated farming system approach introduces a change in the farming techniques for maximum 

production in the cropping pattern and takes care of optimal utilization of resources.

2.The farm wastes are better recycled for productive purposes in the integrated system.

3.A judicious mix of agricultural enterprises like dairy, poultry, piggery, fishery, sericulture etc. suited to the given agro-climatic conditions and socio-economic status of the farmers would bring prosperity in the farming.

ADVANTAGES OF INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM:

•  Higher food production to equate the demand of the exploding population of our nation
•  Increased farm income through proper residue recycling and allied components 
•  Sustainable soil fertility and productivity through organic waste recycling
•  Regular stable income through the products like egg, milk, mushroom, vegetables, honey and silkworm cocoons from the linked activities in integrated farming
•  Inclusion of biogas & agro forestry in integrated farming system will solve the prognosticated energy crisis
•  Cultivation of fodder crops as intercropping and as border cropping will result in the availability of adequate nutritious fodder for animal components like mulch cow, goat / sheep, pig and rabbit
•  Firewood and construction wood requirements could be met from the agro forestry system without affecting the natural forest
•  Avoidance of soil loss through erosion by agro-forestry and proper cultivation of each part of land by integrated farming

COMPONENTS OF INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM:

1.Crops, livestock, birds and trees are the major components of any IFS.

2. Crop may have subsystem like monocropping, mixed/ intercropping,multi-tier crops of cereals, legumes (pulses), oilseed, forage etc.

3.Livestock components may be mulch cow, goat, sheep, poultry, bees.

4. Tree components may include timer, fuel, fodder and fruit trees.

Factors to be considered

The following factors have to be considered while selecting IFS in rained areas.

Soil types, rainfall and its distribution and length of growing season are the major factors that decide the selection of suitable annual crops, trees and livestock components. The needs and resource base of the farmers also decides the selection of IFS components in any farm.

1. Suitable grain crops: According to soil type we can select suitable crops.

Black soil: 

Cereals:           Maize

Millets:            Sorghum, bare

Pulses:             Green gram, black gram, red gram, chickpea, soybean, horse gram

Oilseeds:         Sunflower, safflower

Fibre:              Cotton

Other crops:    Coriander, chillies

Red soil

Millets:            Sorghum

Minor Millets: raga, toenail, same, pain virago, virago

Pulses:             Lab- lab, green gram, red gram, soybean, horse gram, cowpea

Oilseeds:         Groundnut, castor, sesame

2. Suitable forage crops

Black soils

Fodder sorghum, fodder bare, fodder cowpea, desman thus, Rhodes grass, Mail kunai pull, Elusive sp., Thomson grass

Red soils

Fodder choler, fodder bare, Neelakolukattai (Blue Buffed Grass), fodder raga, Sank pushpin (Conch flower creeper), fodder cowpea, Mural Missal (Style), senator, marvel grasses, spear grass, votive

3. Suitable tree species

Tamarind, Simarouba,Vagai (Ladies tongue), Harappa, Kodak vela, A.tortilis, Man Kath vela, A.mellifera, Need, Hardwicke binate, Beer, Indian Gooseberry, Casuarinas, Silk cottoned. are suitable for red gravelly/sandy red loam soils.

Kara vela, A.tortilis, A.albida, Need, Vague,   Holoptelia integrifolia, Manjra neither, Hibiscus tilifolia, Melina arboreal, Casuarinas, Subabuland Adina cord folia are suitable for black soils.

4. Suitable livestock and birds,goat, sheep, white cattle, black cattle, pigeon, rabbit, quail and poultry.

The various agronomic approaches for increasing the overall productivity and sustainability of IFS:

• Adoption of improved cropping system according to the rainfall and soil moisture availabilit
•  Selection of suitable grain crop species, tree species that supply pods/leaves for a longer period or throughout the year.
•  The surplus fodder leaves, crop residues etc. during the rainy season should be preserved as silage/hay for lean season (summer).
•  Integration of allied activities will result in the availability of nutritious food enriched with protein, carbohydrate, fat, minerals and vitamins.
•  Integrated farming will help in environmental protection through effective recycling of waste from animal activities like piggery, poultry and pigeon rearing.
•  Reduced production cost of components through input recycling from the byproducts of allied enterprises.

CONCEPT NOTE ON INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM MODEL UNDER THE INTEGRATED BASIN DEVELOPMENT AND LIVELIHOOD PROGRAMME

In Meghalaya, where majority of the farmers are either small or marginal, the income from agriculture sector

in their farm is not at all sufficient to run their families. Due to fragmentation of land –holdings, even after adoption of improved agricultural technology and practices, their economy condition has not improved.For the last few decades, agricultural scientists in the developing and underdeveloped countries were looking for an alternate agriculture system to increase the net income of these farmers so that the economic condition of these small and marginal farmers could be improved. Integrated Farming

System provides opportunity which would considerably improve the economic condition of the marginal and small farmers as an appropriate alternative innovation in this sphere.

Integrated Farming System may be defined as a set of agricultural activities organized into a functional unit to profitably harness the solar energy while preserving land productivity ,environmental quality and maintaining the desirable level of biological diversity and ecological stability. Integration of different agricultural allied enterprises with crop activity as base would provide ways to reuse and recycle produce/waste material of one component as input in the other linked component and to reduce the cost of production of the economic produce of the component two and finally to enhance the net-income of the farm as a whole.

Objectives

1.To integrate different production systems like dairy, poultry, livestock ,fishery, floriculture, horticulture, apiculture, etc with agricultural crops production as the base.

2. To increase farm resource use efficiency (land, labour and production/by-products) so as to increase farm income and gainful employment opportunity.

3. To promote multi-cropping (out of the total cropped areas of 265816 Ha, only 46697 Ha (18%) is sown more than once), for multi-layered crops of economic value so as to sustain land productivity.

4. To maintain environmental quality and ecological stability

Opportunities

1. Productivity: Increase economic yield per unit area - per unit time by virtue of intensification of crops canopy, agricultural crop rotation and allied enterprise.

2. Profitability: The system, as a whole provides opportunity to make use of produce/ waste material of one component as input on the other component at the least cost.

3. Potentiality/Sustainability: In Integrated Farming System, organic supplementation through effective utilisation of by-products of linked components as a measure is possible and this will certainly provide opportunity to promote soil health and to sustain the potentiality of the soil which is the production base.

4. Balanced food: In Integrated Farming System, we link components of different nature enabling to produce different sources of nutrition, namely, protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, vitamins, etc from the same unit

area. It will provide opportunity to mitigate malnutrition problem of the farmers.

5. Pollution: In crop based activity, some of the organics are left as waste materials which in turn pollute the environment on decomposition.Application of huge quantity of fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides, insecticides, etc pollute soil, water and air. Much of the wastes could be converted/recycled to some other forms of economic/ecological/social value, under the Integrated Farming System.

6. Integrated Farming System provide opportunities as crop insurance cover as money round the year are obtained from different farm produces.

7. Technology Infusion (R&D) integrated with indigenous/Traditional knowledge.

8. Mitigating energy crisis.

9. Climate change Programme from the perspective of adaptive & mitigation

10. Mitigating the wood, Fodder crisis, etc

11. Avoid degradation of land resources.

12. Provide opportunities for Agri-oriented industries, tourism and related tourism based activities, etc

COMPONENTS OF INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM

1. Agriculture

2. Livestock

3 .fishery

4. Sericulture

5. Silviculture

6. Horticulture

7. Mushroom culture

8. Bio-Gas

9. Apiculture

10. Tourism

11. Fish/Bird/Wildlife-Sanctuary Development, etc.

About Integrated Farming System Model While the integrated farming system appears to be a very alternative innovation, its innovation is not as easy as it looks like. It is not merely addition of one or more components to the farmer’s existing system, but, an entirely new farming system which requires a new set of technological management practices.

Different enterprises will have to be involved in this system. The need for

keeping all the systems in balance as per requirement of the system because over concentration in one will add to the detriment of the other 

eg. For manuring a fish pond of 1 Ha water

area we require: -

300-400 adult chickens

200-300 ducks

30-40 pigs

5-6 cattle

Thus, for integration, the following points must be considered:

1. Productivity and profitability.

2. Technical feasibility and economic viability

3. Socio- cultural adaptability.

4. Sustainability with existing resource and infrastructure

CONCLUSION:

Our farming community is used to farming system approach as evidently

seen in management of household gardens, etc happening around us. So,

what is required for farming at present is how we could improve the productivity of the existing farming system with technological intervention and integration of tradition knowledge etc so as to trigger of some kind of economic activity there-from with ecological concerns.