Ecological balance
IFS methods, if implemented properly, have a positive impact on the ecology of the region. In places where animal husbandry is practiced with crop cultivation, the excreta from animals are utilized as manures. This decreases the dependency on chemical fertilizers, promotes organic farming at a low cost, and impacts soil fertility positively. With this integration, various organic farming models like IFS promote diversification of species in a local area, thereby increasing the complexity of the food web. This induces stability in the local ecosystem and supports more wildlife with time.
Integrated Farming System for Sustainable Agriculture
Integrated Farming System (IFS) is the integration of different agricultural methods like crop cultivation with animal husbandry and aquaculture with pig farming. The essence of IFS is that it works like an ecosystem where all the elements are in equilibrium and interdependent. The waste of one element works as a nutrient for another. The final result is the optimum utilization of resources and nutrients, restoration of ecological balance, and increase in the income of the farmers. For example, some part of the agricultural land can be utilized for growing fodder crops for animals to eat. The crop residue can also be utilized as food for animals. The excreta and urine from the livestock are safe to use organic fertilizer. The use of such organic fertilizer restores soil health. The farmers get benefits like an increase in income from crops and animal husbandry; fewer efforts are required to dispose of the waste and soil health improves. All these benefits to farmers also ensure the sustainability of agriculture. However, some of the enterprises maybe just taken up to increase the farmer’s income, without any interdependency with agriculture.
Sustainable Development is at the core of almost all discussions, all the way from economic to climatic deliberations. The principle of sustainable development is that we should neither sacrifice the needs of today nor compromise the needs of future generations. Food security is one of the most important concerns for the survival of human beings; hence sustainable agriculture is one of the solutions to the above concerns. Sustainability in agriculture is mostly about the sustainability of small farmers since small farmers are about 80% of the farmers in India.
Many strategies have been thought of to make agriculture sustainable. These include agro-climatic zoning, various methods of farming like crop rotation and mixed farming, soil and nutrition management, and Integrated Farming Systems (IFS).
Sustainable agriculture is somewhere at the intersection of economic profitability, social well-being, and ecological balance. Let’s see how IFS enhances each of these components, hence contributing to the sustainability of agriculture.
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