Economics of different farming systems in Chikkaballapur ditrict of Karnataka

Single crop production enterprises are subject to a high degree of risk and uncertainty because of seasonal, irregular and uncertain income and employment to the farmers. Integrated farming system (IFS) approach, i.e. diversification of crop sector and integrating the labour intensive enterpriseslike dairy, crop and sheepcan eradicate all these problems by not only solving economic and ecological problems, but also provide other household needs and employment opportunities for rural poor. From the study it can be concluded that, the age group of the farmers is one of the significant factor, which influence the components of the farming system andit is generally believed that it would be easy to introduce new enterprises among young farmers. The present study also shows thataround 75 per cent of the sample farmers practiced C+D system followed by 12.50% practicing C+Sh and 10% following C+S systems. The high returns to cost ratio in case of small farmers indicated that small farmers were more efficient than other categories of farmers. Further, it was also evident that as the integration of enterprise increases the net returns and employment opportunities to the farmers also increases.