Impact of Integrated Farming System (IFS) on crop production and farm income under temperate Hill Ecology

Integration of crops with animals has proven its worth in all parts of the world especially in India. To test its significance for farmers with small land holding in temperate region of the country, Agriculture Science Centre (Krishi Vigyan Kendra)-Kulgam established an Integrated Farming System (IFS) model over an area of 1.0 ha in 2017 with agriculture, horticulture, dairy and vermicomposting as its components. The aim of the IFS model was to see the impact of integration on farm production and income, so that the model can serve the purpose of farm exposure and training of farmers. Income obtained from the IFS was substantially higher than that obtained from the conventional cereal-based crop production system. Net income from IFS showed a gradual increase from Rs. 238535/ha in 2017 to Rs. 718044/ha in 2021 which was 87.38% and 464.06% higher than conventional cropping, respectively. Net income analysis revealed that IFS attained a more profitable equilibrium with every passing year with the highest returns recorded during 2021. Benefit cost ratio of the Agri-Horticultural component of the IFS fluctuated from 2017 to 2021, with minimum (1.97) recorded during 2019 and maximum (2.96) during 2021. The striking feature of the IFS was the economic adversity coping up feature as observed from the higher returns from one component when the returns were not so good from other and vice versa.