SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF INTEGRATED LIVESTOCK FARMING SYSTEMS
PRAVEEN SRIVASTAVA,CEO,LBCS
INTEGRATED LIVESTOCK FARMING SYSTEMS: SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
Modern farmers are trying to minimize costs and achieve maximum results. For this reason, it is important to carefully analyze and understand how to properly manage a farm. There are many successful cases where cattle breeding and crop production have been combined in such a way that productivity was increased in both areas.
Integrated farming system (IFS) is a cross-linked farming system where farmers use high-quality organic food and renewable energy. The main principle of such system is to reduce pollution and increase income by combining different types of farming. For example, we can talk about fields that are plowed by animals. Pigs can be used to dig up the earth in preparation for planting, and animal manure (like cow waste) can be used to fertilize crops and increase harvest.
Farming System
An appropriate mix of farm enterprises and the resources available to the farmers to raise them for profitability.
It interacts adequately with environment without dislocating the ecological and socio-economic balance on one hand and attempt to meet the national goal on the other.In its real sense, it will help in lifting the economy of agriculture, livestock and standard of living of the farmers of the country as a whole.Farming system is a resource management strategy to achieve economic and sustained agricultural production to meet diverse requirements of farm livelihood while preserving resource base and maintaining a high level of environment quality.
Farming system is a set of agro-economic activities that are interrelated and interact with themselves in a particular agrarian setting.
It is a mix of farm enterprises to which farm families allocate its resources in order to efficiently utilize the existing enterprises for increasing the productivity and profitability of the farm. These farm enterprises are crop, livestock, aquaculture, agro- forestry and agri-horticulture.
Specialized vs. Integrated Farming System
Specialized Farming System (SFS): Specialization involves the intensification of the agricultural activity aimed at maximization of the production/area/time.This involves improvement of operational efficiency and speed of operation/execution at each step. The specialized farming system is focused on single cropping system or sequence of farming enterprise like animal breeding, dairying so as to achieve the highest degree of precision management with minimal diversion of resources to diverse crops or enterprises.
Integrated Farming System (IFS): A component of FSR (Farming System research), introduces a change in the farming techniques for maximum production in the cropping pattern and takes care of optimal utilization of resources.The farm wastes are better recycled for productive purposes in the IFS.Unlike the SFS, IFS’s activity is focussed round a few selected, interdependent, interrelated and often interlinking production systems based on a few crops, animals and related subsidiary professions.IFS envisage harnessing the complementarities and synergies among different agricultural sub-systems/enterprises and augmenting the total productivity, sustainability and gainful employment.
Mixed Farming vs. Farming System
Mixed farming system consists of components such as crops and livestock that coexist independently from each other.In this farming integrating crops and livestock serves primarily to minimize the risk and not to recycle resources.Enterprises in the integrated farming system are mutually supportive and depend on each other.
In IFS, crops and livestock interact to create a synergy, with recycling allowing the maximum use of available resources.Crop residues can be used for animal feed, while livestock and livestock by-product production and processing can enhance agricultural productivity by intensifying nutrients that improve soil fertility and reducing the use of chemical fertilizers. A high integration of crops and livestock is often considered as a step forward, but small farmers need to have sufficient access to knowledge, assets and inputs to manage this system in a way that is economically and environmentally sustainable over the long term (FAO, 2001).
Concept of Integrated Farming System
“There is no waste”, and “waste is only a misplaced resource which can become a valuable material for another product” in IFS. (FAO, 1977)
IFS is a mixed farming system that consists of at least two separate but logically interdependent parts of a crop and livestock enterprises. (Okigbo,1995) ,According to this concept, integration usually occurs when outputs (usually by- products) of one enterprise are used as inputs by another within the context of the farming system.
IFS as a mixed animal crop system where the animal component is often raised on agricultural waste products while the animal is used to cultivate the soil and provide manure to be used as fertilizer and fuel.
Key principles of integrated farming system
🠶 Cyclic
🠶 Rational
🠶 Ecologically sustainable
Cyclic
🠶 The farming system is essentially cyclic (organic resources – livestock – land – crops).
🠶 Therefore, management decisions related to one component may affect the others.
Rotational
🠶 Using crop residues more rationally is an important route out of poverty.
🠶 For resource-poor farmers, the correct management of crop residues, together with an optimal allocation of scarce resources, leads to sustainable production.
Ecologically Sustainable
🠶 Combining ecological sustainability and economic viability, the integrated livestock- farming system maintains and improves agricultural productivity while also reducing negative environmental impacts.
Scope of integrated farming system
🠶 Farming enterprises include crop, livestock, poultry, fish, sericulture etc. A combination of one or more enterprises with cropping when carefully chosen, planned and executed gives greater dividends than a single enterprise, especially for small and marginal farmers.
🠶 Farm as a unit is to be considered and planned for effective integration of the enterprises to be combined with crop production activity.
Factors influencing Integration of Farm Enterprises
🠶 Soil and climatic features of the selected area.
🠶 Availability of the resources, land, labour and Capital.
🠶 Present level of utilization of resources.
🠶 Economics of proposed integrated farming system.
🠶 Managerial skill of farmers.
Advantages of Integrated Farming System
🠶 Profitability: Use waste material of one component at the least cost. Thus reduction of cost of production and form the linkage of utilization of waste material, elimination of middleman interference in most input used. Working out net profit B/ C ratio is increased.
🠶 Potentiality or Sustainability: Organic supplementation through effective utilization of by products of linked component is done thus providing an opportunity to sustain the potentiality of production base for much longer periods.
🠶 Balanced Food: We link components of varied nature enabling to produce different sources of nutrition.
🠶 Environmental Safety: In IFFS waste materials are effectively recycled by linking appropriate components, thus minimize environment pollution.
🠶 Recycling: Effective recycling of waste material in IFFS.
🠶 Income Rounds the year: Due to interaction of enterprises with crops, eggs, milk, mushroom, honey, cocoons silkworm. Provides flow of money to the farmer round the year.
🠶 Adoption of New Technology: Resources farmer (big farmer) fully utilize technology. IFS farmers, linkage of dairy/mushroom/ sericulture/vegetable.
🠶 Money flow round the year gives an inducement to the small/original farmers to go for the adoption technologies.
🠶 Saving Energy: To identify an alternative source to reduce our dependence on fossil energy source within short time.
🠶 Effective recycling technique the organic wastes available in the system can be utilized to generate biogas. Energy crisis can be postponed to the later period.
🠶 Meeting Fodder crisis: Every piece of land area is effectively utilized. Plantation of perennial legume fodder trees on field borders and also fixing the atmospheric nitrogen. These practices will greatly relieve the problem of non–availability of quality fodder to the animal component linked.
🠶 Solving Fuel and Timber Crisis: Linking agro-forestry appropriately the production level of fuel and industrial wood can be enhanced without determining effect on crop.
🠶 This will also greatly reduce deforestation, preserving our natural ecosystem.
🠶 Employment Generation: Combining crop with livestock enterprises would increase the labour requirement significantly and would help in reducing the problems of under employment to a great extent.
🠶 IFS provide enough scope to employ family labour round the year.
Farming System Concept
🠶 A farm is a system in that it has INPUTS, PROCESSES and OUTPUTS.
🠶 Depending on the type of farming e.g. arable/pastoral, commercial/subsistence, the type and amount of inputs, processes and outputs will vary.
🠶 Income through arable farming alone is insufficient for bulk of the marginal farmers.
🠶 The other activities such as dairying, poultry, sericulture, apiculture, fisheries etc. assume critical importance in supplementing their farm income.
🠶 INPUTS are the factors that a farm needs to work.
🠶 Inputs can be divided into two groups:
🠶 Physical inputs are naturally occurring things such as water, raw
materials and the land.
🠶 Human or Cultural inputs are things like money, labour, and skills.
🠶 PROCESSES are the actions within the farm that allow the inputs to turn into outputs. Processes could include things such as milking, harvesting and spraying.
🠶 OUTPUTS can be negative or positive. Negative outputs include waste products and soil erosion.
🠶 The positive outputs are the finished products, such as wheat, seeds, meat, milk, and eggs, and the money gained from the sale of those products.
Time and space concept
🠶 Time concept relates to increasing crop intensification in situation where there is no constraint for inputs.
🠶 In rain-fed areas, where there is no possibility of increasing the intensity of cropping, the other modern concept (space concept) can be applied.
🠶 In space concept, crops are arranged in tier system combining two or more crops with varying field duration as intercrops by suitably modifying the planting method.
🠶 Provide a steady and stable income rejuvenation/amelioration of the system’s productivity.
🠶 Achieve agro-ecological equilibrium through the reduction in the build-up of pests and diseases, through natural cropping system management and the reduction in the use of chemicals (in-organic fertilizers and pesticides) to provide chemical free healthy produce and environment to the society.
🠶 The need to provide for some measure of food security.
🠶 The need to use the resources of soils, climate, etc. to provide employment and economic activity.
🠶 The need to increase inland fish production, given the water resources available and static world fish output and that the rapidly developing sub-sectors of the economy (e.g. tourism) are not only fragile but can ultimately be self-destructive if not carefully handled and also dramatically increase food importation.
🠶 With the new world trade situation of reduced farm and export subsidies, the cost of imported food (and feed) is rising.
🠶 Developed, “modern” agriculture is not necessarily energy-efficient agriculture.
🠶 The lack of animal feed throughout the year and unavailability of
labour in needy times are the major production constraints in IFS.
🠶 Resource-poor farmers are not able to invest more capital as initial investment as a constraint since there is need of immediate economic returns to meet their food requirements, schools, medical treatments and loan- repayment.
🠶 The high start-up costs may constrain farmers from switching to integrated farming and from exploiting the benefits of resource integration.
🠶 Procuring the improved breeds of livestock, timely availability of fish seed and feed, low cost energy efficient pumping machine, information on government schemes and credit support from financial institutions.
🠶 Lack of scientific knowledge on rearing of animals, unavailability of improved breeds in the local markets and lack of financial support respectively
Income generation and nutritional security through Livestock Based Integrated Farming System
Livestock Based Integrated Farming System
Livestock based integrated farming system is one of the rising agriculture systems for the northeastern region. The practice of this type of farming system has been continued in this region in a traditional way from time immemorial. The basic principles of the farming system are productive recycling of farm wastes. Different subsystems work together in integrated farming system resulting in a greater total productivity than the sum of their individual production. Fish-Livestock along with Livestock-Crop farming is the major concept in Livestock based integrated farming system.
Fish – livestock farming systems
Fish- livestock farming systems are recognized as highly assured technology where predetermined quantum of livestock waste obtained by rearing the live stock in the pond area is applied in pond to raise the fish crop without any other additional supply of nutrients. The main potential linkages between livestock and fish production concern use of nutrients, particularly reuse of livestock manures for fish production. The term nutrients mainly refer to elements such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) which function as fertilizers to stimulate natural food webs rather than conventional livestock nutrition usage such as feed ingredients. Both production and processing of livestock generate by-products that can be used for aquaculture. Direct use of livestock production wastes is the most widespread and conventionally recognized type of integrated farming. Production wastes include manure, urine and spilled feed; and they may be used as fresh inputs or be processed in some way before use.
Based on the type of livestock used for integration there are many combinations in livestock-fish systems. Some of the combination are listed and discussed below.
Cattle-Fish Culture
Manuring of fish pond by using cow dung is one of the common practices all-over the world. A healthy cow excretes over 4,000-5,000 kg dung, 3,500-4,000 lt urine on an annual basis. Manuring with cow dung, which is rich in nutrients results in increase of natural food organism and bacteria in fishpond. A unit of 5-6 cows can provide adequate manure for 1 ha of pond. In addition to 9,000 kg of milk, about 3,000-4,000 kg fish/ha/year can also be harvested with such integration.
Cowshed should be built close to fishpond to simplify handling of cow manure. A cow requires about 7,000-8,000 kg of green grass annually. Grass carp utilizes the left over grasses, which are about 2,500 kg. Fish also utilize the fine feed which consists of grains wasted by cows. In place of raw cow dung, biogas slurry could be used with equally good production. Twenty to thirty thousand kg of biogas slurry are recycled in 1 ha water area to get over 4000 kg of fish without feed or any fertilizer application.
Pig-Fish system
The waste produced by 30-40 pigs is equivalent to 1 tonne of ammonium sulphate. Exotic breeds like White Yorkshire, Landrace and Hampshire are reared in pig-sty near the fish pond. Depending on the size of the fishponds and their manure requirements, such a system can either be built on the bund dividing two fishponds or on the dry-side of the bund. Pigsties, however, may also be constructed in a nearby place where the urine and dung of pigs are first allowed to the oxidation tanks (digestion chambers) of biogas plants for the production of methane for household use. The liquid manure (slurry) is then discharged into the fishponds through small ditches running through pond bunds. Alternately, the pig manure may be heaped in localized places of fishponds or may be applied in fishponds by dissolving in water.
Pig dung contains more than 70 percent digestible feed for fish. The undigested solids present in the pig dung also serve as direct food source to tilapia and common carp. A density of 40 pigs has been found to be enough to fertilize a fish pond of one hectare area. The optimum dose of pig manure per hectare has been estimated as five tonnes for a culture period of one year. Fish like grass carp, silver carp and common carp (1:2:1) are suitable for integration with pigs.
Pigs attain slaughter maturity size (60-70 kg) with in 6 months and give 6-12 piglets in every litter. Their age at first maturity ranges from 6-8 months. Fish attain marketable size in a year. Final harvesting is done after 12 months of rearing. It is seen that a fish production of 3,000 kg/ha could be achieved under a stocking density of 6,000 fish fingerlings/ha in a culture period of six months.
Poultry-Fish Culture
Poultry raising for meat (broilers) or eggs (layers) can be integrated with fish culture to reduce costs on fertilizers and feeds in fish culture and maximize benefits. Poultry can be raised over or adjacent to the ponds and the poultry excreta recycled to fertilize the fishponds. Poultry housing, when constructed above the water level using bamboo poles would fertilize fishponds directly.In fish poultry integration, birds housed under intensive system are considered best. Birds are kept in confinement with no access to outside. Deep litter is well suited for this type of farming. About 6-8 cm thick layer prepared from chopped straw, dry leaves, saw dust or groundnut shell is sufficient.
Poultry dung in the form of fully built up dip litter contains: 3% nitrogen, 2% phosphate and 2% potash, therefore it acts as a good fertilizer which helps in producing fish feed i.e. phytoplankton and zooplankton in fish pond. So application of extra fertilizer to fish pond for raising fish is not needed. This cuts the cost of fish production by 60%. In one year 25-30 birds can produce 1 tonne dip litter and based on that it is found that 500-600 birds are enough to fertilize 1 ha water spread area for good fish production. Daily at the rate of 50 kg/ha water spread area poultry dung is applied to the fish pond. When phytoplanktonic bloom is seen over the surface water of fish pond then application of poultry dung to the pond should immediately be suspended. Poultry-fish integration also maximizes the use of space; saves labour in transporting manure to the ponds and the poultry house is more hygienic and water needed for poultry husbandry practice can get from fish pond.
Duck-Fish Culture
A fish-pond being a semi-closed biological system with several aquatic animals and plants,provides excellent disease-free environment for ducks.In return ducks consume juvenile frogs, tadpoles and dragonfly, thus making a safe environment for fish. Duck dropping goes directly in pond, which in turn provides essential nutrients to stimulate growth of natural food.This has two advantages, there is no loss of energy and fertilization is homogeneous. This integrated farming has been followed in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Tripura and Karnataka. Most commonly used breed for this system in India is the ‘Indian runners’.
It is highly profitable as it greatly enhances the animal protein production in terms of fish and duck per unit area. Ducks are known as living manuring machines.The duck dropping contain 25 per cent organic and 20 percent inorganic substances with a number of elements such as carbon ,phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, calcium,etc. Hence, it forms a very good source of fertilizer in fish ponds for the production of fish food organisms.Besides manuring, ducks eradicate the unwanted insects,snails and their larvae which may be the vectors of fish pathogenic organisms and water-borne disease-causing organisms infecting human beings. Further, ducks also help in releasing nutrients from the soil of ponds,particularly when they agitate the shore areas of the pond.
For duck-fish culture, ducks may be periodically allowed to range freely, or may be put in screened resting places above the water. Floating pens or sheds made of bamboo splits may also be suspended in the pond to allow uniform manuring. The ducks may be stocked in these sheds at the rate of 15 to 20/m2. It is better if the ducks are left in ponds only until they reach marketable size. Depending on the growth rate of ducks, they may be replaced once in two to three months. About 15-20 days old ducklings are generally selected. The number of ducks may be between 100 and 3,000/ha depending on the duration of fish culture and the manure requirements.
For culturing fish with ducks, it is advisable to release fish fingerlings of more than 10 cm size, otherwise the ducks may feed on the fingerlings. The stocking density of fingerlings also depends on the size of pond and number of ducks released in it. As the nitrogen-rich duck manure enhances both phyto and zooplankton production, phytoplankton-feeding silver carp and zooplankton-feeding catla and common carp are ideal for duck-fish culture. The fish rearing period is generally kept as one year and under a stocking density of 20,000/ha, a fish production of 3,000-4,000 kg/ha/year has been obtained in duck-fish culture. In addition to this, eggs and duck-meat are also obtained in good quantity on an annual basis.
Livestock-crop production system
An “integrated crop-livestock system” is a form of mixed production that utilizes crops and livestock in a way that they can complement one another through space and time. The backbone of an integrated system is the herd of ruminants (animals like sheep, goats or cattle), which graze a pasture to build up the soil. Eventually, sufficient soil organic matter builds up to the point where crops can be supported. Animal can also be used for farm operations and transport. While crop residues provide fodder for livestock and grain provides supplementary feed for productive animals.
Animals play key and multiple roles in the functioning of the farm, and not only because they provide livestock products (meat, milk, eggs, wool, and hides) or can be converted into prompt cash in times of need. Animals transform plant energy into useful work: animal power is used for ploughing, transport and in activities such as milling, logging, road construction,marketing, and water lifting for irrigation. Animals also provide manure and other types of animal waste. Animal excreta have two crucial roles in the overall sustainability of the system:
- Improving nutrient cycling: Excreta contain several nutrients (including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and organic matter, which are important for maintaining soil structure and fertility. Through its use, production is increased while the risk of soil degradation is reduced.
- Providing energy: Excreta are the basis for the production of biogas and energy for household use (e.g. cooking, lighting) or for rural industries (e.g.powering mills and water pumps). Fuel in the form of biogas or dung cakes can replace charcoal and wood.
One key advantage of crop-livestock production systems is that livestock can be fed on crop residues and other products that would otherwise pose a major waste disposal problem. For example, livestock can be fed on straw, damaged fruits, grains and household wastes. Integration of livestock and crop allows nutrients to be recycled more effectively on the farm. Manure itself is a valuable fertilizer containing 8 kg of nitrogen, 4kg of phosphorus and 16 kg of potassium per tonne. Adding manure to the soil not only fertilizes it but also improves its structures and water retention capacity. It is also opined that where livestock are used to graze, the vegetation under plantations of coconut, oil palm and rubber, as in Malaysia, the cost of weed control can be dramatically reduced, sometimes by as much as 40 percent. In Colombia sheep are sometimes used to control weeds in sugarcane. Draught animal power is widely used for cultivation, transportation, water lifting and powering food processing equipment.
Over all Advantages of Integrated Farming System
- Productivity: IFS provides an opportunity to increase economic yield per unit area per unit time by virtue of intensification of crop and allied enterprises especially for small and marginal farmers.
- Profitability: Cost of feed for livestock is about 65-75% of total cost of production; however use of waste material and their byproduct reduces the cost of production, conversely it is same for the crop production as fertilizer requirement for crop is made available from animal excreta no extra fertilizer is required to purchase from out side farm as a result the benefit cost ratio increases and purchasing power of farmers improves thereby.
- Sustainability:In IFS, subsystem of one waste material or byproduct works as an input for the other subsystem and their byproduct or inputs are organic in nature thus providing an opportunity to sustain the potentiality of production base for much longer periods as compare to monoculture farming system.
- Balanced Food: All the nutrient requirements of human are not exclusively found in single food,to meet such requirement different food staffs have to be consumed by farmers. Such requirement can be fulfilled by adopting IFS at farmer level, enabling different sources of nutrition.
- Environmental Safety:In IFS waste materials are effectively recycled by linking appropriate components, thus minimize environment pollution.
- Recycling: Effective recycling of product, byproducts and waste material in IFS is the corner stone behind the sustainability of farming system under resource poor condition in rural area.
- Income Rounds the year: Due to interaction of enterprises with crops, eggs, meat and milk, provides flow of money round the year amongst farming community.
- Saving Energy: Cattle are used as a medium of transportation in rural area more over cow dung is used as such a burning material for cooking purpose or utilized to generate biogas thereby reducing the dependency on petrol/diesel and fossil fuel respectively, taping the available source within the farming system, to conserve energy.
- Meeting Fodder crisis: Byproduct and waste material of crop are effectively utilized as a fodder for livestock (Ruminants) and product like grain,maize are used as feed for monogastric animal (pig and poultry).
- Employment Generation: Combining crop with livestock enterprises would increase the labour requirement significantly and would help in reducing the problems of under employment to a great extent IFS provide enough scope to employ family labour round the year.
Conclusion
In recent years, food security, livelihood security,water security as well as natural resources conservation and environment protection have emerged as major issues worldwide, Developing countries struggling to deal with these issues and also have to contend with the dual burden of climate change and globalization. It has been accepted by everyone across the globe that sustainable development is the only way to promote rational utilization of resources and environmental protection without hampering economic growth. Developing countries around the world are promoting sustainable development through sustainable agricultural practices which will help them in addressing socioeconomic as well as environmental issues simultaneously. Within the broad concept of sustainable agriculture “Integrated Farming Systems” hold special position as in this system nothing is wasted, the byproduct of one system becomes the input for other. Integrated farming is an integrated approach to farming as compared to existing monoculture approaches. It refers to agricultural systems that integrate livestock and crop production. Moreover, the system help poor small farmers, who have very small land holding for crop production and a few heads of livestock to diversify farm production, increase cash income, improve quality and quantity of food produced and exploitation of unutilized resources.
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INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM (IFS)
Source: Farm Magazine of Central Agricultural University
