Food, nutrition and energy security of small and marginal farmers through integrated agriculture

Food security and environmental sustainability are threatened by the degradation of natural resources in India’s rice-based agricultural systems. On-farm and on-station experiments on the integrated farming system (IFS) were carried out at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, to develop a productive, profitable and long-term resource-conserving alternative agricultural system that secures the food, nutrition and energy requirements of small farmers. IFS helped in making the farming system sustainable through different cropping, biodiversity and ecosystem services. It provided food and nutrition security to the farmer family through the production of diversified food commodities such as cereal, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, fish, meat, etc. Dairy–biogas integration offered a promising win–win opportunity to improve crop production while, at the same time, meeting the fuel needs of the farmer families. Field application of slurry reduced fertilizer burden on the farmers, besides improving the sustainability of their fields. Ecosystem services such as pollination of crops, run-off water harvesting, prevention of soil erosion, carbon sequestration by plants and soil, cultural services, etc. are vital for the sustainable supply of food and fibre. The experiment was conducted for three consecutive years (2015–18), and was observed that the IFS model generated net returns of INR 378,784 and employment of 628 mandays which are more than the conventional rice–wheat system. In the Indo-Gangetic Plains, IFS leads to sustainable intensification besides food security and poverty alleviation.