Dairy Economics, Statistics and Management Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132001, Haryana
Online published on 5 December, 2018.
The present study was conducted to analyze the economic viability and sustainability of different homestead farming systems in Kerala. Three districts namely, Kottayam, Thrissur and Kozhikode were selected for the study and primary data from 240 homestead farms was collected through interview method during 2016–17. The prominent farming systems identified in the area included Crop+ Poultry (FS-I), Crop+ Dairy+ Poultry (FS-II), Crop+ Dairy+ Goat+ Poultry (FS-III), Crop+ Goat+ Poultry (FS-IV) and Crop+ Fishery+ Poultry (FS-V). The economic analysis of farming systems indicated that the annual gross returns in FS-III was Rs 4,61,126 with a total cost of Rs 2,63,951 and net returns of Rs 1,97,174, which was found to be the most profitable one. Higher net returns were due to the adoption of more enterprises in the FS-III. The study has established economic viability of homestead farming systems and the importance of diversification of enterprises for realizing higher returns.
