Characterization of conventional and integrated farming system adopted by small and marginal farmers

This study characterizes existing farming systems adopted by small and marginal farmer in Hisar district of Haryana and Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. A rapid rural appraisal was conducted via informal discussions with 200 randomly selected farmers (100 farmers from Hisar and 100 from Lakhimpur Kheri district) by using a pre-tested, structured questionnaire. Farming was the main income-generating source for the majority of households in the study area. Wheat, mustard, paddy, cotton, green gram, vegetables, cattle and goat farming were the major farming activities that were undertaken by the farmers. The findings of the present study depicts that in Kharif season cotton in Haryana and sugarcane and paddy in Uttar Pradesh were major crops, however more than half respondents in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were growing summer moong and lentil as leguminous crops respectively. Dairy was prominent in Haryana and 72.00 per cent respondents were rearing buffalo and in Uttar Pradesh 26.00 per cent respondents were rearing goats. It was good to note that IFS combination, Crop+Dairy+Horticulture was found highly profitable in Haryana and Crop+Dairy+Horticulture+Goatry farming components had highest average annual net income i.e.2.28 lakh and found highly profitable IFS combinations in Uttar Pradesh. Most of the households had possession of livestock for supplementary income, so it is suggested that small and marginal farm families should be skilled to generate income through commercial sales and value-addition of location specific livestock products. Integrated farming system could be suggested as a better solution to enhance long term livelihood sustainability by improving farm productivity and profitability.