A Study on Farming Systems and Sustainable Livelihood through Managing Wastewater in West Bengal

This study undertaken in the Kolkata district of West Bengal has a focus on wastewater-based farming systems and their sustainability. The primary data were collected from 120 sample farmers for the agricultural year 2010–2011. The study has shown that the GCA was 3–4 times of NCA, where paddy-fish farming system was most prevalent of which 67.5 per cent were small farmers. A comparison of cost effectiveness under various categories of sample farmers has revealed that the large farmers fall in the higher class of the less cost-effective group, followed by medium and small farmers. The share of internal, eco-friendly and external input-use in the total value of input-use for different categories of farmers has been analyzed. The small farmers own the highest share of internal inputs which shows that they are more sustainable as compared to the other farm-sizes. In terms of usage of eco-friendly inputs, medium farmers have been ranked first, while medium and large farmers use a higher amount of external inputs which shows less sustainable approach towards farming systems in the study area.