Performance of Pond Based Integrated Farming Systems in Different Agro-Ecosystems: An On-farm Survey

Abstract

The paper presents insight into pond based integrated farming system (IFS) in humid tropics of Eastern India in terms of ecosystem area allocated and income generated from different enterprises. It is based on on-farm survey conducted in 51 farmer fields using stratified random sampling technique in 3 agro-ecosystems (coastal waterlogged, rainfed plateau, and canal irrigated) during the year 2012-13. The results revealed that highest average net economic return of INR 115485 ha^-1 under IFS was accrued in irrigated ecosystem. It was closely followed by coastal waterlogged ecosystem (INR 111740 ha^-1) while lowest amount of INR 61,964 ha^-1 was noted under rainfed ecosystem. This return for coastal waterlogged ecosystem was very high as it increased by 6.7 times as compared to the common practice of rice-fallow sequence with a net return of INR 16801 ha^-1 only. Such increases were 3.0 and 2.2 times under rainfed plateau and irrigated ecosystems, respectively. Net return from IFS were further divided into 3 broad components viz., pond, embankment and adjoining upland, and field crop component. In case of the pond component, average net return was quite lucrative under coastal waterlogged ecosystem (INR 181085 ha^-1), however, for embankment and adjoining upland component, it was under irrigated (INR 209843 ha^-1) ecosystem.