Is Integrated Farming System (IFS) helpful in sustaining agricultural production

IFS is a farming practice meant for all-round development of agriculture with animal husbandry and other occupations related to core agricultural practices. Integrated Farming System (IFS) is an interdependent, interrelated often interlocking production systems based on few crops, animals and related subsidiary enterprises in such a way that maximizes the utilization of nutrients of each system. 

• The IFS approach has multiple objectives of sustainability, food security, farmer security and poverty reduction. It involves use of outputs of one enterprise component as inputs for other related enterprises wherever feasible, for example, cattle dung mixed with crop residues and farm waste can be converted into nutrient-rich vermi-compost. 

• use of local resources, effective recycling of farm waste for productive purposes, community-led local systems for water conservation, organic farming, and developing a judicious mix of income-generating activities, such as dairy, poultry, fishery, goat-rearing, vermicomposting and others. 

Major environmental benefits include 

• •Recycling and utilization of other available resources in the farm 
• •Potentiality or sustainability 
• •Balanced food 
• •Environmental safety 
• •Saving energy 
• •Meeting fodder crisis 
• •Solving fuel and timber crisis 
• •Increasing input efficiency 

The emergence of Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) has enabled us to develop a framework for an alternative development model to improve the feasibility of small-sized farming operations in relation to larger ones.