Economic analysis of rice based integrated farming system models in Kuttanad

Abstract

In any developing economy, in order to attain pro-poor growth and economic development, it is necessary that the agriculture sector flourishes, along with improvement in farmers’ income. According to Agricultural Census of 2015-16, the average operational land holding in Kerala was found to be 0.18 ha. Hence, the scope of horizontal expansion is limited and the only possible alternative is vertical expansion. Integrated Farming System (IFS) is a resource management strategy that ensures year round income to the farm families with the integration of appropriate subsidiary enterprises. It helps in meeting the diverse requirements of the farm household, ensures employment generation and sustainable livelihood of small and marginal farmers along with minimizing the risk associated with monocropping. Rice farmers in Kuttanad have taken up subsidiary enterprises like duckery, fish, dairy and poultry to ensure additional returns. The different IFS models identified among the 100 sample farmers from the study area were Rice+ Duckery, Rice+ Fish, Rice+ Dairy, Rice- Fish sequential farming, Rice+ Fish+ Poultry, Rice+ Fish+ Duckery, Rice+ Fish+ Dairy, Rice+ Fish+ Poultry+ Duckery, Rice+ Dairy+ Poultry, Rice+ Dairy+ Fodder and Rice+ Banana+ Dairy+ Duckery. The predominant models in the study area were Rice+ Duckery which was followed by Rice+ Fish and Rice+ Fish+ Poultry+ Duckery. The economic analysis of the rice based IFS models were carried out to identify the most profitable models. It was observed that fish and duckery enterprises were profitably integrated with rice among the farmers in Kuttanad. The model Rice+ Fish and Rice+ Fish+ Duckery showed a high B-C ratio of 2.52 at Cost A1. Rice+ Duckery was the next most profitable model at a B-C ratio of 2.42. At Cost C, Rice+ Fish showed the highest B-C ratio of 1.45 followed by Rice+ Duckery and Rice+ Fish+ Duckery at B-C ratios 1.32 and 1.26 respectively. The models involving dairy showed significantly lower B-C ratios attributing to the labour intensive nature of the enterprise and high cost of dairy concentrates. Rice–Fish sequential farming showed highest employment generation of 348 Person Days/yr. Economic sustainability of the IFS models were analysed using Sustainable Value Index (SVI) and System Economic Efficiency (SEE). The highest economic sustainability was obtained for the model i Rice+ Banana+ Dairy+ Duckery at an SVI of 0.73 and SEE of ₹1133/day and the lowest was observed for the model Rice+ Dairy+ Poultry at SVI and SEE of -0.14 and ₹147/day respectively. Analysing the resource use efficiency of rice under IFS in Kuttanad revealed that the wetland area was underutilized, and hired human labour was over utilized. The rice based IFS model developed by The Integrated Farming System Research Station, Karamana was analysed for its profitability. The model included dairy, duckery, fish, vegetable cultivation on the dykes and allied activities like vermicomposting. The model was found to be profitable at a discounted B-C ratio of 1.03, NPW of ₹47,617 and IRR of 20 percent. Components of the model like cultivation of vegetables on dykes and construction of duck shelter over the fish pond could be well adopted by farmers in Kuttanad. Constraints in adoption of the IFS models by the farmers were studied using the Garrett ranking technique and the agreement between the respondents in ranking the constraints was studied using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. The most important constraint that prevents farmers from adoption of the IFS models was unfavourable weather conditions. This corresponded to the fact that the farmers in Kuttanad face severe hardships as the area gets flooded during the monsoon making it difficult for them to raise cattle, poultry and duckery. Although farmers have come up with coping strategies like constructing cattle shed on raised platforms, these have not received widespread acceptance. The other important constraints were labour scarcity, avian diseases, soil acidity and salinity, high input cost, crop pests and diseases, lack of technical knowledge, lack of proper extension support, lack of improved variety/breeds and poor storage facilities. The Kendall’s W statistic of 0.63 indicated that there was general agreement between the farmers in ranking the constraints. Increasing the awareness of the farmers regarding the benefits of IFS through trainings, capacity building programmes for a more skilled labour force, localised weather forecasting and warning systems, strengthening of risk minimising strategies like insuring the crops and livestock and support for taking up allied activities like mushroom cultivation have been suggested.