Agroforestry versus Integrated Farming System: Two versions of farm diversification in India

Abstract

Agroforestry has been age-old practice that evolved as an ecologically viable land use system yielding diversified farm outputs, whereas integrated farming system is introduced among small farmers to augment income through diversified enterprises. These two forms of farm intervention in India appear to have much in common yet, these two interventions are completely contrasting to one another. Utilizing the research weaving approach, this study brings in the systematic argument distinguishing agroforestry from integrating farming system on structural, ecological and economic basis. Prior to which the search analysis facility of Google Trends as well as Google Ngram viewer were deployed to illustrate the evolution and usage of these two terms. Overall, the study exemplifies ample evidence to narrate agroforestry as an integrated agroecological system, while the new narration for the IFS encompasses pooling together various forms of enterprises into the farming practice in a unit area.