Integrated Farming: You can earn lakhs of rupees even in a small farm, know everything about it
What is integrated farming?With this any farmer can earn profit throughout the year. In this system, leftover products and residues from one component can be used for another component. If you do poultry farming then you can feed poultry droppings to the fishes. This will increase the population of fish, which will lead to profit and secondly, the water of that pond can be used for irrigation. If animal husbandry is also done along with this, good profit can be earned by selling the milk of cows and buffaloes.
Let’s visit the farm of farmer Surendra Awana
Progressive farmer Surendra Awana is giving a new dimension to farming in Bichun village near Jaipur. On one hand, the farmers of the country are gradually moving away from farming saying that they cannot earn their living from farming, on the other hand, Surendra Awana is suggesting ways to earn manifold profits from farming by adopting the IFS model of farming i.e. Integrated Farming System. The government is also emphasizing on farmers to adopt integrated farming instead of relying only on traditional farming.
Integrated farming means that along with farming, other farming related activities should also be adopted simultaneously so that the cost of farming can be reduced and the income can be increased. A major advantage of adopting integrated farming is that even if for some reason there is no income from one work, one can earn a living from another work.
Increasing income from several types of farming simultaneously
Surendra Awana simultaneously does horticulture, medicinal farming, dairy, fish farming and compost manufacturing along with new age farming on his farm. Since all these works are interconnected, the cost gets reduced. For example, fodder for animals is produced in the fields itself. Animal waste is used to make fertilizer. Similarly, food for fishes is also available from farms and dairies. Surendra Awana is growing 18 types of fodder on his farm. This perennial fodder will provide income for 5 to 80 years. Not only this, along with traditional farming, Awana is also showing the cultivation of apples, almonds and strawberries in Marudhara.
There is huge demand for A2 milk
Along with farming, Awana has done dairy business on a large scale and has reared about 170 local breed of Gir cows. A2 milk of this local cow is in huge demand and is sold at high prices. Cow urine and dung coming out of dairy is used as fertilizer in farming. He has set up a plant on his farm to prepare and sell organic manure. Organic produce prepared using organic fertilizers also fetches higher prices.
Farmer Surendra Awana, who is also doing fish farming, says that this is a big source of income in which one bigha land can yield an income of Rs 10 lakh in a year. Subsidy is also available from the government for fish farming. The demand for fish is high and its prices are also high. At the same time, the importance of medicinal farming has also increased during the Corona period. Surendra Awana has also started medicinal farming and is expecting huge profits from it in future. Farmer Surendra Awana says that the government’s aim is to double the farmer’s income by the year 2022, but through integrated farming the income can be multiplied. Farmers and agricultural scientists come from all over the country to see this successful model of Surendra Awana.
