INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS TO SUIT THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Abstract

Nowadays, farmers concentrate mainly on crop production which is subjected to a high degree of uncertainty in income and employment to the farmers. There are 115 farm holdings in India, of which 80 % are marginal and small farm holdings. The operational farm holding in India is declining and over 85 million out of 105 million are below the size of 1 ha. Due to ever increasing population and decline in per capita availability of land in the country, practically there is no scope for horizontal expansion of land for agriculture. Only vertical expansion is possible by integrating cropping and allied enterprises requiring lesser space and time and ensuring reasonable returns to farm families. In this context, integration of various agricultural enterprises, viz. cropping, animal husbandry, fishery, forestry, backyard poultry etc. have great potentialities in the agricultural economy and it is also suitable strategy for augmenting the income of a farm. These enterprises not only supplement the income of the farmers but also help in increasing the family labor employment throughout the year. Integrated farming system is only the answer to the problem of increasing food production for increasing income and for improving the nutrition of small scale farmers with limited resources. Livestock raising along with crop production is the traditional mixture of activities of the fanner all over the country. Activities such as dairy, poultry, fish culture, sericulture, bio-gas production, edible mushroom cultivation, agro-forestry and agri-horticulture, etc., assumes critical importance in supplementing farm income. It should fit well with farm level infrastructure and ensures full utilization of bye-products.