Integrated farming systems
How crops, livestock, fish, trees and biogas fit together on one farm, classic systems worldwide, the farming systems approach, and an income sum.
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A small farm that grows only rice earns money once or twice a year, depends on one market, and sends its straw up in smoke. The same land with a few cows, a fish pond and fruit trees on the bunds produces food every week, turns straw into milk and manure, turns manure into fish and fertiliser, and spreads both labour and risk across the year. This is the idea behind integrated farming systems (IFS): linking enterprises so that the by-product of one becomes the input of another.
Integrated farming systems are central to farming systems courses and to exams on sustainable agriculture, smallholder development and agricultural economics.
Farming systems: the bigger picture
A farming system is the whole farm as managed by a household: its crops, animals, trees, fish and off-farm work, the resources it uses (land, labour, capital, knowledge), and how they interact. Agricultural scientists think about it as a hierarchy:
- Cropping system: the crops and their sequence on the farm's fields.
- Livestock system, agroforestry system, aquaculture system: the other enterprises.
- Farming system: all these together, managed to meet the household's goals.
The farming systems approach (or farming systems research), developed from the 1970s by CGIAR centres and national programmes, puts the whole farm and the farmer's goals at the centre of research, rather than one crop at a time. It begins by diagnosing constraints on real farms, tests improvements with farmers, and judges them by their effect on the whole household.
What makes a farm integrated
In an integrated system, enterprises are not just side by side but linked by flows of materials, energy and labour.
Typical links:
- Crop residues, grains and by-products feed livestock.
- Manure fertilises crops and ponds, or goes through a biogas plant that supplies cooking fuel and a slurry fertiliser.
- Fish ponds use manure and kitchen waste; pond silt is a rich fertiliser for crops and bunds; pond water irrigates vegetables.
- Trees on boundaries and bunds supply fodder, fruit, fuel and timber, and act as windbreaks.
- Ducks or fish in rice fields eat weeds and insects and add manure.
- Livestock supply draught power where farms are not mechanised.
Classic integrated systems around the world
- Mulberry dyke–fish pond systems of the Pearl River Delta in southern China: mulberry on pond dykes feeds silkworms, silkworm waste feeds fish, and pond mud fertilises the mulberry. Similar dyke systems carry sugarcane, fruit or vegetables.
- Rice–fish and rice–duck systems in China, Japan, Indonesia, Bangladesh and elsewhere; the traditional rice–fish culture of Qingtian County, China is a FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System.
- VAC systems of Viet Nam: vuon (garden), ao (pond) and chuong (livestock pen) around the homestead.
- Crop–livestock systems of the African savanna and the Sahel, where cattle graze crop residues after harvest and manure the fields, and of the Indian subcontinent, where cattle and buffalo depend on crop by-products.
- Integrated crop–livestock–forestry systems in Brazil, which rotate soybean or maize with pasture and trees on the same land.
- Mixed farming in temperate Europe and North America, with leys, livestock and arable crops.
Benefits and limits
Benefits:
- Higher and steadier income from several enterprises and markets.
- Recycling of nutrients and energy, reducing bought fertiliser, feed and fuel.
- Year-round employment and cash flow.
- Better household nutrition, from milk, eggs, fish, fruit and vegetables.
- Lower risk: failure of one enterprise does not ruin the farm.
- Environmental gains: less residue burning, better soil organic matter, more diversity.
Limits:
- More knowledge, management and labour are needed.
- Some enterprises need capital, such as a pond, a cow or a biogas plant.
- Markets for several products must be within reach.
- Specialised farms can be more efficient at large scale, and integration only pays when the links really save inputs or add value.
Measuring a farming system
Comparing a rice farm with an integrated farm
A 1 ha farm currently grows only rice, giving 5,000 kg/ha at 0.30 dollars per kg (gross income 1,500 dollars) with costs of 830 dollars, so net income is 670 dollars.
The household converts part of the land:
| Enterprise | Gross income ($) | Cost ($) |
|---|---|---|
| Rice, 0.6 ha (3,000 kg) | 900 | 500 |
| Fish pond, 0.1 ha (300 kg at 2.00 $/kg) | 600 | 250 |
| Two dairy cows (4,000 L at 0.40 $/L) | 1,600 | 1,000 |
| Vegetables, 0.2 ha | 700 | 300 |
| Fruit and fodder trees on bunds | 200 | 50 |
| Total | 4,000 | 2,100 |
- Net income = 4,000 − 2,100 = 1,900 dollars, nearly three times the rice-only farm.
- Benefit–cost ratio = 4,000 ÷ 2,100 ≈ 1.90.
- Rice-equivalent yield (total gross income ÷ price of rice) = 4,000 ÷ 0.30 ≈ 13,300 kg of rice equivalent, compared with 5,000 kg.
Part of the cost saving comes from integration: rice straw feeds the cows, and manure and pond silt replace some fertiliser. The figures are illustrative; actual returns depend heavily on local prices, markets and management.
Researchers also compare systems by employment (person-days per year), nutrient recycling, energy use efficiency, and resilience to bad years.
Designing an integrated farm
- Start from the household's goals, resources and constraints: land, water, labour, capital, skills and markets.
- Choose enterprises that complement each other in time, labour, feed and nutrients.
- Size them so the links balance, for example enough residues and fodder for the animals, and enough manure for the pond and fields.
- Introduce changes gradually and track inputs, outputs and labour.
Key points
- A farming system is the whole farm and household; IFS links enterprises so by-products of one become inputs of another.
- Typical links: residues to livestock, manure to crops, ponds and biogas, pond silt to crops, trees for fodder and fruit, fish and ducks in rice.
- Classic examples: mulberry dyke–fish pond (China), rice–fish and rice–duck (East and South-East Asia), VAC (Viet Nam), crop–livestock systems (Africa, South Asia), crop–livestock–forestry (Brazil).
- Benefits: higher, steadier income, recycling, employment, nutrition, lower risk; limits: knowledge, labour, capital and markets.
- Systems are compared by net income, benefit–cost ratio, equivalent yield, employment and resource efficiency.
What the exams ask
- School-leaving and entrance papers: definition of farming and integrated farming systems, components, and advantages.
- Degree and research-fellowship entrances: farming systems research, examples of integrated systems, nutrient recycling, rice-equivalent yield, and economics of IFS models.
- Professional and extension examinations: designing IFS models for different land holdings and agro-climates, and evaluating them with farmers.
Described in general terms: the kind of examination, not a past paper. Laisha never reproduces exam questions.
Questions people ask
Is mixed farming the same as integrated farming?
Mixed farming means having both crops and livestock. It becomes integrated when they are deliberately linked, so residues feed animals and manure feeds crops.
How much land do I need for integrated farming?
Integration helps most on small farms, where every by-product counts. Models exist for holdings well under one hectare, often built around a homestead garden, a small pond and a few animals.
Do fish in rice fields reduce rice yield?
Usually not much, and sometimes rice yields rise because fish eat weeds and pests. Fields need deeper refuges for the fish and careful water and pesticide management.
Sources
- Dixon, J., Gulliver, A. and Gibbon, D. Farming Systems and Poverty. FAO and World Bank, 2001.
- FAO, ICLARM and IIRR. Integrated Agriculture–Aquaculture: A Primer. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 407, 2001.
- Lemaire, G. et al. "Integrated crop–livestock systems: strategies to achieve synergy between agricultural production and environmental quality." Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 190, 4–8 (2014).
- Xie, J. et al. "Ecological mechanisms underlying the sustainability of the agricultural heritage rice–fish coculture system." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, E1381–E1387 (2011).
- Hendrickson, J. R. et al. "Principles of integrated agricultural systems: introduction to processes and definition." Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 23, 265–271 (2008).
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