The United Nations has designated 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming to raise the profile of unsung agricultural workers and spotlight the roles they play in the face of challenges like climate change, malnutrition, and poverty.
Like Family Farming, Integrated Farming (IF) or the concept of IF, is the wave of the future.Experts in the European Union (EU)  have said that IF is the  most efficient way to a productive environmentally friendly and socially responsible agriculture.
IF also known as Integrated Bio-systems  is a  farming system which consists of the simultaneous cultivation of food crops (like  corn or rice) and tree fodder (trees or shrubs used for animal feed), together with the raising of sheep, pigs, ducks and fish.

The proponents of  IF systems assert that a  judicious mix of agricultural enterprises like dairy, poultry, piggery, fishery, etc. suited to the given agro-climatic conditions and socio-economic status of the farmers would result in prosperity on the farm.
“Integration of different agricultural enterprises with crop activity as base would provide ways to reuse and recycle produce/waste material of one component as input in the other linked component and reduce the cost of production of the economic produce of the two components and finally to enhance the net-income of the farm as a whole.
For instance, the crop can provide  animal feed/fodder for the livestock, and the livestock  fertiliser (manure) for the crop- one’s waste is indeed another’s food.

So each component sustains one another: the crop residues serve as feed to the livestock and fish, and in turn, the wastes from the livestock and fish serve as fertiliser to the crops.
Some livestock can also act as weed control by foraging on the weeds.
Additionally a bio-digester is an important part of the IF system since livestock waste together with crop residues, can be placed in it to be digested to produce practically free fuel for household cooking and electricity.
Some important elements of the IF system are  Integrated Soil Management, Integrated Crop nutrition ; Integrated Crop Protection through Integrated Pest Management; Integrated Animal Husbandry, Health and Welfare , integrated Water use and protection ie: Using  and re-using water as efficiently as possible and waste management and pollution control.

IF is said to be a traditional Chinese practice  which has  in recent years been further supported by the concept of an all-round ‘development of agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and other sideline occupations.
However while the IF system may appear to be a very useful, implementing it is not as easy as it looks.
It is not merely addition of one or more components to the farmer’s existing system, but an entirely new farming system which requires a new set of management practices.
The need for keeping all the elements in balance is a major requirement of the system because over concentration in one will result in the detriment another, experts have said..  (To be continued)..
Written By Clifford Stanley