Integrated farming system model for food nutrition, livelihood and environmental security of small and marginal land holder farmers.
An integrated farming system model has been established to double farmers income by making multiple use of resources and inputs. Various components of the farming system model such as fisheries, dairy, goatery, poultry, fruit trees, vegetables, food and feed crops have been blended in such a way on 2 acre of land so that all requirements of a family of 5 to 6 persons are met and daily income of Rupees 600 to 1000 is generated. The concept is based on reducing cost of cultivation via in-situ generation of manure by blending animal excreta with farm waste and crop residues. A gobar gas plant has also been established to meet energy requirement of cooking and lighting. A part of the cow dung is used in gobar gas plant, a small part as feed to fish in the pond and rest decomposed with farm waste to generate manure for the crops. The nutrient rich fish pond water is recycled for irrigating field crops to reduce fertilizer use and cost. The fruit plants such as peach, plum, guava, pomegranate, apricot, fig, lemon and citrus planted on the dyke of the pond are contributing to daily income. Similarly, a part of the land used for year round growing of vegetables is also serving as daily source of income. Half of the land is used for growing green fodder, feed, pulses, oil seeds and cereal crops like ice and wheat to meet domestic need. The one year preliminary observations revealed as under:
The dairy component comprising of 3 cows (2 HF and 1 Sahiwal), and one Murrah buffalo is generating maximum returns.
The expenditure on rearing of goats is almost negligible. Their fodder and feed requirement is fully met through the daily vegetable waste and other bio-mass generated at the farm.
Blending of poultry component was not very encouraging due to feed cost and unexpected mortality of the birds.
The decomposed manure generated within the system was sufficient to meet 50% requirement for nutrition of fruits, vegetables and other crops.
Now all components of the IFS model are in place. Detailed economics (direct and indirect benets) is being worked out on yearly basis