Integrated farming

Vishnu Vardhan Reddy.P

TVM/2015-029
Department of Animal nutrition
College of Veterinary Science, Tirupati
Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University
Concept of forming
• Farming system is an integrated set of activities that farmers perform in
their farms under their resources and circumstances to maximize the
productivity and net farm income on a sustainable basis.
• “ Farming System is defined as a complex inter related matrix of soil, plants,
animals, implements, power, labour capital and other inputs controlled in
part by farming families and influenced to varying degrees by political,
economic, institutional and social forces that operate at many levels. The
farming system therefore, refers to the farm as an entity of inter dependent
farming enterprises carried out on the farm”
 Integrated Farming System
• Integrated farming system is a resource management strategy to achieve
economic and sustained agricultural production to meet diverse requirement
of the farm household while preserving the resource base and maintaining
high environmental quality (Itnal et al 1999)
Aims of Integrated forming system

• Integrated farming system aims at increased productivity, profitability,

sustainability, balanced food, clean environment, recycling of resources,
income round the year.

• An integrated crop farming system represents a key solution for enhancing

livestock production, minimizing the effects of intensive farming and
safeguarding the environment through efficient usage of resources.
Objectives of integrated forming
• Should be area specific, formulate models involving main and allied enterprises for
different farming situations.
• It should ensure optimal utilization and conservation of available resources with
efficient recycling within each system included.
• It should raise the net return of the farm household by complementing main activity
with allied enterprises.
• It should concentrate on developing institutional and market linkages by inclusions
of new interventional technologies.
• It should address the nutritional insecurity of resource poor farmers vulnerability
and poverty of landless laborers.
 Benefits of Integrated Farming System
1. Improves the soil fertility & health
2. Increasing economic yield per unit area
3. Reduction in production costs
4. Decreases farm input requirements
5. Multiple income sources
6. Family income support
7. Efficient utilization of family labour
8. Reduction in animal feeding requirements
9. Minimize the use of chemical fertilizers
10. Provides balanced nutritious food for the
farmers
11. Solves the energy problems with biogas
12. Avoids degradation of forests
13. Enhance employment generation
14. Pollution free environment
15. Recycling of resources
16. Improves the status & livelihood of the
farmer
Integration of farm enterprises depends on

1. Soil and climatic features of the selected area.

2. Availability of the resources, land, labor & Capital.
3. Present level of utilization of resources.
4. Economics of proposed integrated farming system.
5. Managerial skill of farmer.
Why we need Integrated forming
• To ensure the income throughout the year, there is need to reorient the present
ways of agricultural practices and develop suitable multi-enterprise agriculture
system for farmers, as single crop production enterprises are subject to a high risk
of natural calamities and seasonal, irregular, and uncertain income and
employment of the farmers.

• Shifting from a crop, commodity and enterprise based agriculture to integrated

multi-enterprise system will help to conserve natural resources and restore the
farmer’s confidence in agriculture besides increasing income of the farmer per
unit land and water.
• To mitigate risks and uncertainties of income from crop enterprises and
reduce the time lag between investment and returns it is essential that
farmers should include multi- enterprises in their production system to
generate regular income throughout the year.

• The governing idea behind multi-enterprise agriculture system is that a

farmer can adopt enterprises such as dairy, horticulture, floriculture, bee
keeping, vegetable, poultry, duckery, piggery, mushroom, fisheries, gobar
gas plant and solar heater etc.
• The entire philosophy of multi-enterprise farming system revolves around
better utilization of time, money, resources, and family labor.

• The farm family gets scope for employment round the year thus ensuring
good income and decent standard of living.

• Grain Production component ensures household food security besides

income, fodder production component helps to generate regular income,
vegetable and horticulture based components, usually restricted to the
dykes of the farm pond, provide nutritional security to the farm family,
generate regular income throughout the year.
Out line of Integrate forming system
Characteristics of Integrated forming system
• An intensive integrated farming system addresses two issues,

1. Reduction in risk with the monoculture activities and promoting enterprise

diversification.

2. Development of alternative income sources with efficient utilization of farm

resources.

• And better management of important farm resources like land, labor and capital etc.

• Provides an opportunity for effective recycling of the product and by-products, helps
to generate flow of cash to the farmers round the year by way of disposal of milk,
fruits, fuel, manure etc., beside other agricultural output.
For meaningful execution of integrated farm-enterprises, the following

activities should be undertaken

• Thorough understanding of existing farming systems and their components.

• Assessment of resource availability in the farm environment and

identification of bio-physical, socio-economic, institutional, administrative

and technological constraints

• Developments of economic viable and efficient integrated farming systems

suitable for various domains

• Diffusion of improved technology and receiving ‘feed back’ for further
improvement of the system as a whole

• Continuous improvement in components technology to fit into a given

farming system

• Improvement in quality of farming system

• Research Extension linkage through “On farm Adaptive Research”

• Development of National and International linkages.

Constraints of Integrated forming system

• Major production constraints are labor and animal feed shortages

throughout the year.

• Long transition time may be required for implementation of multi-

enterprise agriculture model.

• High start-up costs may restrain farmers from switching to multi- enterprise
system and enjoy the benefits of resource integration.

• Disincentive from government subsidies in adopting multi enterprise

agriculture system, credits for fertilizers, and herbicides are the constraints.
The following farm enterprises could be combined
Agriculture alone with different crop combinations
Agriculture + Livestock
Agriculture + Livestock + poultry
Agriculture + Horticulture + Sericulture
Agro-forestry + Silvipasture
Agriculture (Rice) + Fish culture
Agriculture (Rice) + Fish + Mushroom cultivation
Floriculture + Apiary (beekeeping)
Fishery + Duckery + poultry
• Dairy cattle:
Important dairy breeds of buffalo cattle
are Murrah, Mehsana, Jafrabadi,
Godavari and Jersey, H.F, Sahiwal and
cross bred cattle, respectively.
Daily requirement @ 1 kg concentrate
per 3 kg milk produced by cattle and 2
kg milk produced by buffaloes, green
fodder (20- 30 kg), straw 5-7 kg & water
32 lit.
• Sheep Rearing:
Housing should not be expensive. 1-2 kg of leguminous hay per day. Protein
supplied through concentrate as groundnut cake.

• Goat Rearing:
Nutrients requirement to goat is low. Hence they are suitable for resources poor
small farmers with marginal grazing lands

• Piggery:
Pigs are fed largely on kitchen waste aquatic plants and crop wastes. The waste
excreted by the 30-35 kg pig equivalent to 1 tonne of ammonium sulphate. Exotic
pig breeds Large White Yorkshire, Landrace etc. are reared in pig sty near to the fish
pond.
• Rabbit Rearing:
Rabbit can be easily reared with relatively less concentrate feed with high
production rate

• Poultry:
Use of cheap and efficient ration will give maximum profit cereals- maize,
barley, oats, wheat, rice ± broken mineral/ salt ± limestone, salt
manganese.

• Turkey rearing:
Turkey is a robust bird and can be reared in humid tropics.
• Duck rearing:
They are popular in cereal and logged states like West Bengal. Orissa, A.P, T. Nadu,
they have production potential of about 130- 140 eggs/bird / year.

• Bee Keeping:
Bee keeping is one of the most important agro- based industries which do not
required any raw material like other industries. Nectar and pollen from flower are
the raw material, which available in plenty in nature.

• Sericulture:
It plays an important role in socio- economic development of rural poor in
some areas. Karnataka is the major silk producing state in India
• Moriculture:
Cultivation of mulberry plants is called as Moriculture. The crop
yield is well for 12 years. Yield of mulberry leaves is 30- 40 t/ ha/year.

• Mushroom Cultivation:
The popular varieties are Oyster mushroom, Paddy straw mushroom-
volvarilla volvacea and White button mushroom- Agaricus gisporus ( var, A-
11, Horst V3).
Integrated livestock fish
farming
Introduction
• The high cost of feed is the major constraint to intensive fish production.
The raising cost of fish feed has brought interest in the utilization of animal
waste in pond culture.
• The cow dung and poultry dried droppings as a direct fish feed showed that
manure are poor substitutes for the components normally included in fish
feed pellets. The maximum 30 percent dried manure may be included in
the fish be feed to obtain equal growth with conventional fish feed pellets
(Schroeder, 1980).
• Generally, the value of the manure, in increasing order is: cattle, sheep and
goat, followed by pig, chicken and ducks.
• The highest planktonic bacterial production rates were measured in the pig
manured ponds, while the highest values of benthic production were
observed in the sheep manured system.

• In this system many species of animal are suitable for integration, for
example, duck, goose, sheep, hens, cattle, pigs, etc.
 Structure of fish culture pond
• In the pool and pond fish production the common fishes are the Silver carp
(Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), Bighead (Aristichthys Nobillis) Grass carp
(Ctenopharyngodon idella) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.).

• The silver carp and bighead are mainly herbivorous which like to stay at the higher
level of the pond, the grass carp is carnivorous which like to stay at the middle lower
or bottom part and common carp is omnivorous and stay at the bottom of the pond.

• 1acre pond is given as: grass carp 3000 – 4500, bighead carp 750 – 1500, silver carp
1500 – 3750, common amur 750 – 1500, black carp 300 – 450, congo tilapia 3000 –
6000. The number of ducks kept were 750 heads and pigs 15 – 30 heads per ha.
• The utilization of organic manure as the principal nutrient input to the pond is a
traditional management practice in freshwater fish farming in China and other parts of
Asia.

• The use of organic manure in fish farming is based on the assumption that the manure is
utilized through two pathways.

1. The manure organic matter provides dissolved and particulate substrates for bacteria
and the bacterial laden particles provide food to the filter feeding and detritus
consuming animals.

2. While the mineralized fraction of the manure stimulates phytoplankton productivity

similar to the action of inorganic fertilizers. The manure organic matter coated with
bacteria is considered a link in the food web and should be treated as a food (Hepher
and Pruginin, 1981).
• The main potential linkages between livestock and fish production
concern use of nutrients particularly reuse of livestock manure for fish
production.

• The term nutrients mainly refers to elements such as nitrogen (N) and
phosphorous (P) which function as fertilizers to stimulate natural food
webs rather than conventional livestock nutrition usage such as feed
ingredients.

• Integrated fish farming can be broadly classified into two:

Agriculture-fish and Livestock-fish systems.
Agri based systems include

Rice-fish integration, Horticulture-fish system, Mushroom-fish system and

Sericulture-fish system

Livestock-fish system includes

Cattle-fish system, Pig-fish system, Poultry-fish system, Duck-fish system,

Goat-fish system, Rabbit-fish system etc.
Four kinds of integrated livestock fish farming systems
were introduced, namely

1. Full water surface utilization

2. Pond side feeding of birds
3. Slotted floor design upon certain part of pond surface
4. Grass intermediate practice.
Full water surface utilization by waterfowl

In this kind the pond top is used by

pasturing the waterfowls, the lower
water part is stratified by varieties of
fishes. The fowl's droppings served
as food for fishes, showing the
symbiosis of these two species in
nature.
Pond side feeding of birds
In this kind the birds' house is set up at
the higher side of the pond. The free
range of bird keeping area reaches
down the slope, not very far from the
bank, where the water fowls are
stopped by the barrier, which allows the
feed being rinsed down the pool and
pond or allows the fishes going through
the lath screens.
Slatted floor design upon certain part of pond surface

This kind of practice is available for

duck, chicken and even pigs, the
droppings and wastes of which are
good feed for fish as well as other
zooplanktons. The slatted floor may
be built using different types of
building materials, including bamboo
sticks.
Grass intermediate practice

In this kind the grass used for feeding

the fish is fertilized by livestock
wastes intensively. The farmers raise
the cattle or pigs not necessarily
near the water pond. The livestock
and fish production is integrated
through the grass planting.
Types of Integrated livestock fish farming

• Agriculture Cum Fish Culture :

Culture of fish in rice fields and cultivation of vegetation, fruits and crops
along the dikes is prevalent in China and South East Asia countries.
• Rice cum shrimp culture :

It is being practiced in many

countries of Asia. Fish cultured in
trench or canal dug in paddy fields in
low lying areas yielded 700 kg/ha
fish along with 5.5 ton/ha of paddy.
• Cattle Fish Farming :
Cow manure particles sink at 2-6 cm/minute as against 4.3 cm/minute of pig manure
thereby providing sufficient time for fish to consume edible portion available in dung.
Furthermore, biological oxygen demand of cow manure is lower than that of other
livestock manures as it is already decomposed by microorganisms in rumen.
The normal requirement of fresh cattle dung for a fish pond of one hectare is 10,000-
15,000 kg so 5-8 cattle are sufficient to fertilize one hectare of fish pond In addition to
9,000 kg of milk, about 3000-4000 kg fish/hac/year can also be harvested with 5000-
8000 no of fish seed per hectare with ratio of 40:20:30:10 for
surface:column:bottom:macro-vegetation feeder 20,000-30,000 kg of biogas slurry is
recycled in 1 hectare water area to get over 4000 kg of fish without feed or any
fertilizer application.
• Poultry Fish Farming :
This system utilizes poultry droppings for fish culture. Production levels of
4500-5000 kg/fish/ha could be obtained by recycling poultry manure into
fishponds Deep litter is well suited for this type of farming.

Rhode Island Red or Leghorn birds are preferred in poultry-fish system for
their better growth and egg laying capacity.

Fertilization with poultry manure results in a production of 3000-4000 kg

fish, 90,000-100,000 eggs and over 2,500 kg meat/ year.
• Duck-cum-Fish farming:

This integrated farming has been followed in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Tripura and Karnataka. Most
commonly used breed for this system in india is indian runner.

The fish rearing period is generally kept as one year and under a stocking
density of 20,000/ha, a fish production of 3,000-4,000 kg/ha/year has been
obtained in duck-fish culture. In addition to this, eggs and duck-meat are also
obtained in good quantity on an annual basis
• Livestock Poultry Fish Horticulture :

The manure collected from the buffaloes is flushed to the biogas plant, and
after it is fermented into the digester, methane gas is produced which can be
used as fuel for household use.

The slurry coming out from the biogas plant is collected, diluted with water,
and is fed to the fish ponds.

The phytoplankton and zooplankton growth is used by the fish as feed.

• Pig-cum-Fish farming :
The distinguishing features of this system of farming are :

i) Fish utilizes both unutilized pig mash(ration) as well as fresh pig manure
(containing 70% digestible food for the fish) as its food

ii) Pig dung acts as an excellent fertilizer and raise the biological
productivity of the pond water,

iii) Drastically reduced the cost of inputs required for fish farming

iv) The expenditure incurred on raising of pigs is largely set off through the
sale proceeds of the pig meat.
• Pigs are reared in pens or sties built on the banks of the fish ponds (and
wastes are washed out) or constructed over the ponds on piles or wooden
stilts and have a lattice type of floor (allowing wastes to fall directly into
the pond).

• The number of pigs per ha of ponds area varies from 40 to 300, according
to the literature. However, the number of piglets recommended is
generally 100 per ha (or 1 piglet per 100 m2 of pond)
• Fish Farming cum Horticulture :
Pond banks provide a suitable place which can be economically used for
raising fruit plants like banana, papaya and vegetables.
• Fish Farming cum Sericulture :
Mulberry plants are grown on and around pond dikes which are irrigated
with pond water. The system is commonly practiced in China and newly
introduced in other countries. Silk is extracted from the silkworms which
are reared on mulberry leaves while the remaining pupae (having very high
protein content) are fed back to the fish and excellent growth of fish feed
on pupae has been recorded.
• Edwards (1983) attempted to estimate the number of pigs, dairy cows and
buffaloes required to produce a mean yield of 174.7 kg of fish/200/m2 /yr
from the manure of 26.7 ducks, equivalent to an extrapolated yield of 8735
kg/ha/yr from 1335 ducks. The number of animals required to produce this
quantum of fish was 410 pigs, 40 dairy cows and 85 buffaloes.
Benefits of Integrated livestock fish farming
• The potential benefits are associated with increased efficiency in the use of
the existing crop and animal resources, reduced dependence on purchased
concentrates are used for feeding fish, and concurrent reduced cost of
feeding and production.

• The efficiency of nitrogen utilisation for fish biomass production is

relatively higher in systems where concentrates are used, however, the use
of nitrogenous manure from animals has less pollution capacity.
• The implications for research are directly concerned with the development
of more fully integrated systems in animal fish mixed farming that are
distinctly more sustainable, provide for efficient resource use, are
economically beneficial, and can promote environmental integrity.
The special features of this type of integrated system
are as follows
Complementary of ruminants to utilise nonmarketable crop residues in situ, the manure production

from which can be used by fish;

Availability of water plants which can also be simultaneously utilised by ruminants;

Reduced cost of feeding and production due to more intensive use of available indigenous feeds.

The use of purchased concentrate supplements is restricted to dairy cattle;

Demonstrable benefits in terms of significant income generation from the sale of crops, animals,

fish and some byproducts like rice bran in rice based systems;

Development of sustainable integrated systems combining fish and animals;

With small farms, the meagre resources are put to more effective.
Economics of integrated livestock fish production
system
• Physical Factors
• Stocking Rate
• Economic Analysis
• Marketing
Cost of production
• Fixed costs:
Construction of animal houses and purchase of equipment, the former
being the largest cost item.

• Variable costs:
Purchase of animals and feed, and from labour payments and transport
costs.
Present status of integrated farming of fish and
livestock.
• It is clear that integrated livestock fish farming systems are mainly concentrated in Asia.

• In recent years however, some of these systems have been successfully applied in other
developing countries and impressive fish yields have been obtained.

• Except in the state owned farms and cooperatives in Eastern Europe, China and Vietnam,
integrated livestock fish farming is practiced mostly on a small scale level, by rural
communities.

• The aims of the farmers are to make use of their land at the lowest cost and to increase
their income.
• In Asia, the integrated production systems have been developed empirically by the
farmers themselves and are still largely aimed at fulfilling only their own food
requirements (Rajbanshi and Shrestha, 1980).

• In the social and economic conditions prevailing in developing countries, integration of

livestock may be the only source of fertilizers available, at low cost, to make fish culture
economically feasible.

• In South America, experiments have shown the technical feasibility and the expansion
potential of integrated livestock fish farming in Panama and Ecuador. The technical and
economic feasibility of some integrated systems has been demonstrated in several
African countries and is now practiced.

• In Western Europe and in the USA, only sporadic and limited trials on integrated fish
farming have been conducted.
Future development of livestock cum fish production
• The potential for integrated aquaculture exists in many developing countries but more
research is needed if the development of integrated livestock fish farming systems is to
be enhanced.

• Sociocultural factors should be given due consideration together with the economic and
technical feasibility studies.

• Successful trials and demonstrations have been carried out in developing countries, but
more comparative feasibility studies on the economics of the different livestock fish
farming systems have to be conducted, analyzed and published.

• On farm tests are of particular interest and should be planned and implemented to
generate the information that is now lacking.
THANK YOU

Vishnu Vardhan Reddy.P

TVM/2015-029