Integrated farming systems: A potential tool for doubling farmer’s income

During the last 4-5 decades of agricultural research and development in India, major emphasis has been given to component and commodity based research projects for developing crop varieties, animal breeds and farm implements etc, mostly conducted in isolation and at the institute level. This component, commodity and discipline based research has proved largely inadequate in addressing the multifarious problems of small farmers. Due to such approaches, several ills have appeared in Indian farming, such as decreasing factor productivity, resource use efficiency and declining farm profitability and productivity.