Role of integrated farming system in increasing farmers’ income and employment

JM Laishram and L Nabachandra Singh
Contd from previous issue
Although empirical account of food intake in IFS is not very common, it is reported to increase food security in wide contexts. Indirectly, improved income naturally contributes to higher food consumption and food security.
3. Integrated farming system, employment opportunity
Some authors have summarized the multifaceted benefits of IFS to include economic benefits in terms of increased food production, and social benefits in terms of provision of employment opportunities for excess labour force heading towards the urban areas. IFS is labour intensive, which creates on-farm employment and most of the labour required in the production process is contributed by the farmer and his family members. IFS is reported to generate more man-days in the farm itself than conventional farming, the figures although varying widely across systems. Where Behera et al. (1999) reported more than 450 mandays ha-1 year-1 in a pond-based integrated farming system, Ramrao et al. (2005) and Solaiappan et al. (2007) reported575,950 and 343 man-days ha-1 year-1 respectively in mixed integrated systems. Although, adjustment for inflation is required for comparing such reports, there is no systematic meta-analysis addressing this issue. Apart from generating man-days, IFS ensure that the employment is generated throughout the year, ensuring a steady sink for local labour force.
4. Integrated farming system and energy efficiency
In developing countries, major sources of farm energy expenditure are fertilizer, and farm machinery. Since integrated farms are relatively less mechanized and encourages the use of internal inputs, energy use is much lower in integrated farms compared to conventional farms. Integrated farms (a form of sustainable farming) are mostly found in smaller farms, which have higher energy efficiency in general. Moreover, many of these integrated farms are subsistence and involve less mobility in and around the farm, thus saving human energy and energy associated with transportation of farm produce. Empirical evidences different parts of the globe suggest that integrated system is the most efficient in terms of energy efficiency (Bailey et al., 2003; Alluvione et al., 2011) and this input output ratio of energy varies greatly in different systems.
The writers are from the  College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal.
For further details contact: - Public Relations & Media Management Cell, CAU, Imphal. Email: [email protected]