Farming System and Sustainable Agriculture

The glory of Green Revolution proved to be a turning point in improving the food situation from “begging bowl to self-sufficiency”. There has been a spectacular increase in food grain production of India from 50.8 million tons in 1950-51 to more than 275 million tons at present. Day-by-day, the agricultural scenario is changing fast and task of keeping pace with population growth is strenuous and challenging. Now days several emerging issues have been addressed to sustain the high productivity under different cropping and farming systems. The future of Indian agriculture depends on the development of appropriate farming system as applicable to resource poor farm families and as suited to different agro-ecological zones. Integrated farming system is not only a reliable way of obtaining fairly high productivity with substantial fertilizer economy, but also a concept of ecological soundness leading to sustainable agriculture. A judicious mix of cropping systems with associated enterprises like dairy, poultry, piggery, fishery, sericulture, bee keeping, mushroom production etc suited to the given agro- climatic conditions and socio-economic status of the farmers would bring prosperity to the farmer. The future of Indian agriculture depends on the development of appropriate farming system as applicable to resource poor farm families and as suited to different agro-ecological zones. Integrated farming system is not only a reliable way of obtaining fairly high productivity with substantial fertilizer economy, but also a concept of ecological soundness leading to sustainable agriculture.