Sustainable rural livelihoods through enhanced farming systems productivity and efficient support system in rainfed areas

Abstract

This is a very complex and serious problem, when share of agriculture in gross domestic product is declining, average size of land holding is contracting and number of operational holdings is increasing. It is imperative to develop strategies that enable adequate employment and income generation, especially for small and marginal farmers who constitute more than 80 percent of the farming community. Under the gradual shrinking of land holding, horizontal expansion of land based enterprises is not possible. Hence, vertical integration land based enterprises within the socioeconomic environment of the farmers will make farming more profitable and dependable. Therefore, Farming systems approach is a valuable approach to addressing the problems of sustainable economic growth for farming communities in India. Hence, integrated farming systems are viewed as a sustainable alternative to commercial farming systems particularly on marginal lands with the objective of reversing resource degradation and stabilizing farm incomes. The literature on the contribution of integrated farming systems in achieving sustainable rural livelihood security has been reviewed in this paper.