Integrated Farming System Approach for Enhancing the Livelihood Security & Productivity of Hill Farmers

Objective: Integrated farming System approach is thought of as a sure way of enhancing farm productivity by judicious use of resources thus providing livelihood security to farmers. Keeping this in consideration one hectare on station integrated farming system model was established in 2010 to assess system productivity, profitability, relative efficiencies, and resource use to optimize individual components of farming systemat the Research Farm of CSKHKV, Palampur for 2016-17.

Methods: One hectare model consisted of 0.65 ha for field crops, 0.175 ha for Horticulture cum vegetable, 0.10 ha for fodder crops, 0.075 ha for dairy, poultry, vermin compost and Mushroom unit. Economic analysis was done by calculating cost of cultivation, gross returns, net returns, B:C ratio on the basis of prevailing market prices for inputs and outputs in 2016-17. Maximum yields obtained in Rice-wheat cropping system in farmers’ field were the base for comparison with one ha IFS Model.

Findings: The one hectare IFS model resulted in gross returns of ₹3, 06,270/-, net returns of ₹1, 28,698/- and B:C ratio of 0.76. However, rice-wheat cropping system in the entire area would result in only net returns of ₹44,000/-.Thus; the net returns to the tune of 2.92 times higher in IFS model were compared obtained to that obtained in rice-wheat cropping system. However, replacing rice-wheat with maize + soybean-potato cropping system would result in net returns of ₹184200/- per hectare. Maize + soybean - peas cropping system gave the least net returns (₹33930/- per hectare), though the B:C ratio was higher (2.12) followed by B:C ratio of 2.10 in maize + soybean - potato. Vegetable intercropping in Horticulture plantation resulted in net returns of ₹9627/-, dairy unit gave net returns of ₹49,604/-, fodder crops (₹17,031/-), and Mushroom cultivation (₹1847/-). The profit share of different components viz. cropping systems (33.71%), forage (13.23%), Mushroom (8%) and vegetable (7.4%) of the total net returns was obtained.

Application: With the raising of complementary and interdependent components in IFS Model variety of products viz. cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, mushroom were obtained which gave balanced nutrition to the family, regular income throughout the year, and more employment generation round the year.