AbstractIndian agriculture is currently facing multiple interrelated challenges, including declining factor productivity, inefficient resource use, and a diminishing contribution to the national economy (14.4%), despite agriculture supporting approximately 52% of the population. A substantial portion of the country’s agricultural focus remains on cereal crop production, while small and marginal farmers (<1.0 ha), who constitute 86% of the farming community, struggle with escalating costs of inputs, labor, and energy. The shrinking size of landholdings further intensifies the difficulties in ensuring agricultural profitability and sustainability. In addition, nearly 100 M ha of India’s farmland are rainfed, making these areas particularly vulnerable to climate variability and low productivity. Achieving sustainable agricultural practices in these regions requires integrating climate-smart strategies tailored to farmers’ needs. In this context, the adoption of the Integrated Farming System (IFS), which combines cropping with other farm enterprises, holds great promise for enhancing productivity, improving resource-use efficiency, and generating additional employment. Extensive research across various agro-ecological regions has demonstrated that the complementary nature of different components within IFS not only boosts food production but also addresses nutritional needs, stabilizes farm incomes, and contributes to ecological sustainability. By creating synergies between different farm enterprises, IFS can be especially beneficial for small holders with limited resources. This review synthesizes research findings on the potential for resource integration within IFS, examining both the opportunities for improving productivity and sustainability and the challenges that may hinder widespread adoption of this system in diverse agricultural settings.
Kumar et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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