Ecosystem services from horticulture-based farming systems: Looking beyond yield and income

Abstract

Horticulture-based farming systems provide much more than fruits and vegetables. Combined with field crops, fish, poultry, composting and boundary plantations, the farm delivers food, nutrient recycling, soil improvement, carbon sequestration, biodiversity and livelihood diversification. A five-year horticulture-based integrated farming system at ICAR-IIFSR, Modipuram, produced 32 food items, held 39% perennial cover and 310 days of soil cover, while returned `2.94 lakh/ha/year, recycled substantial N, P and K, and recorded a net GHG balance of −6,093.2 kg CO₂-equivalent. This provides evidence that such farms should be assessed through the ecosystem services they generate, not through production and profit alone.