INTEGRATED FARMING
- a climate change adaptation strategy for
small and marginal farmers in low lands
near sundarban
Anshuman DasDevelopment Research Communication and Services Centre
West Bengal
India
Situated in the southern coastal areas of the West Bengal,
District South 24 Parganas includes the coastal mangrove
areas of the Sundarbans, a 20,000 km² area that stretches
across the Ganges Delta with 60% falling in Bangladesh and
40% in West Bengal, is one of the most vulnerable regions due
to climatic changes.
Some problems, intensified in last 2~3 year
- increased rainfall/occurrence of lightning, storm intensity and
frequency
- rains in the monsoon season tend to be more intense and persist for
6-7 days before they break rather than the 1-2 days that
characterised past seasons
- winters and summers have become warmer in the last 3-4 years
- intermediary seasons have changed – spring/autumn has now
disappeared
- summer rainfall that had the benefit of reducing temperatures,
supplying moisture to the soil, has declined
- freshwater flooding from the adjacent Hugli River
- gradual infiltration of saline water into the soil.
- water logging, water does not flow quickly out of the cultivation area.
Resulting into
reduced rice yields
crop growth delayed, increasing susceptibility to pests and diseases
erratic flowering of fruit trees
loss of cash crops e.g. chillies
Let’s take specific case of 3 farmers
Banamali Das Sukomal Mandal Gobardhan Patra
Total Land 0.6 acre 1.1 acre 0.4 acre
Cropping pattern Vegetables
during winter
and rainy
season, Rice in
winter
Rice in Kharif, some
vegetable during
winter
Rice in kharif, some
vegetable during
winter, Vegetable
during rainy season
Other Assets Home +
Homestead
Garden + pond
= 0.25 acre.
Pond + home=0.2
acre
0.05 acre pond
Family Member 7 Adult + 4
Children
2 Adult + 2 Children 10 Adult + 10
Children
* all of them having low lands, during rains/flood takes 3~4 months to recede –
making the land uncultivable
Common Problem
-Very small amount of land
- Low land, which becomes uncultivable due to long and unpredictable
water logging condition
- Unpredictability of climate (rainfall/temperature/fog/storm) effecting
germination and yield
- Pest attack increased
- Can’t manage to feed their family
Basic Intervention Principle
1. Ditch/pond/canal in the low land to drain the logged water
to make the low land cultivable
2. Raised bed and bund
3. Change the mono-cropping system to mixed cropping –
reducing dependency on single crop
4. Integrating other subsystem with crop subsystem to
increase resilience against loss of a crop due to climatic
vagaries and create linkages between various subsystems
to bring the cost of cultivation down
5. Using each and every vertical & horizontal space for
production
6. Extending farming season, creating on-farm, off farm
mandays, reduce market dependency
Water logged
Farmer1: Before intervention
Water logged
Farmer1: After intervention
1 Canal around the area
3 MPT in bund
4 Vegetable over canal6 Cowshed
8 Biogas
9 raised bed
7 Hen coupe over pond
5 Net over pond
2 Small pond
1Canal
2 net over the canal
3 MPT
4 Rain water hvst
5 Raised Bed
6 Small Pond
Farmer 2
1 Net over the canal
2 Paddy (SRI)
3 MTP4 Cow
5 Vermi
6 Canal
9 Pond
7 Hen
8 raised bed
10 water
logging
tolerant aurum
Farmer 3
Intra system dependency: Rice-fish-duck-azolla
Banamali Das Sukomal Mandal Gobardhan Patra
Crop Winter – 12 types
Summer – 8 types
Rainy Season – 17
types + Paddy-fish-
duck-azolla
Winter – 25 types +
Paddy (SRI)
Summer – 13 types
Rainy Season – 22
types
Winter – 10 types
Summer – 5 types
Rainy Season – 10
types + Paddy-fish-
azolla
Perennial
Tree
5 types of
fodder/wood/biomass
generating + 7 types of
fruit
5 types of fruit 6 types of fruit
Animal/
Poultry/Fish
5 Cows
8 ducks, 18 hens
Fish
2 cows, 6 goats
24 hens, 2 ducks
Fish
2 cows, 2 bull
24 hens
Fish
Bioinput Compost,
vermicompost,
fish/poultry/fodder
from his own plot, bio-
pestrepellents, biogas
slurry
Compost,
vermicompost,
fish/poultry/fodder from
his own plot, bio-
pestrepellents
Compost,
vermicompost,
fish/poultry/fodder
from his own plot,
bio-pestrepellents
Others Seed preservation,
Biogas
Seed preservation Rain water
harvesting, seed
preservation
Intervention
2082.5
1145.51680
992 821
6856.84
4990
3610
6240
419 169
3752.25
3752.25
4492
9553.2
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000O
utp
ut
Input
Inte
rnal
Input
Outp
ut
Input
Inte
rnal
Input
Outp
ut
Input
Inte
rnal
Input
Outp
ut
Input
Inte
rnal
Input
Outp
ut
Input
Inte
rnal
Input
Trial Plot Homestead
Garden
Livestock Biodigester Pond
Subsystems,Output, Input, Internal Input
Rs
.Impact: diversified output/income
Summary: Land shaping cost 5000 INR as loan. Total input 12235.5 INR (9497.75 INR is
internally generated), Total output 28222 INR + own consumption 13000 INR
48
25
24
25
23
40
5 10
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2006-07 2007-08
Enterprise
Livestock
Aqua
Agr
Impact: reducing livelihood dependency on single enterprise
Impact: energy/input cost/calorie/biomass recycling within
the system – making the system more stable
Before Biogas plant:
Fuel consumption: 25 dung cakes (300 g per dung cake) & 10 kg
of firewood per day.
After Constructing Biogas plant:
Fuel consumption: Biogas at the rate of 1.5 hours per day and
10 Kg of firewood per week.
+ biogas slurry for making vermicompost
No fossil fuel dependency, no mechanized tillage – no
irrigation/chemical fertiliser/pesticide
Impact: Clean Energy
Impact: Faming season extended, more days of work,
more cash in hand, no migration
Impact: More resilient shock proof system, can manage
water logging, longer summer
• Integration of animal, bird, micro organism etc.
reduces need for weeding & pesticide application,
improves shock absorption capacity, extends
number of working days, reduces dependency over
single livelihood
• Mulch farming, low/no tillage systems and using
surface water reduces consumption of
petrochemicals.
• Mixed cropping of plants with different root depth &
structure, resulting in optimal utilization of
water/nutrient and higher resilience against
environmental stress.
Summary
• Use of locally adapted plants, animals etc.
reduce the need for high external inputs
• Biological soil inputs, which enhance capacity
of soil to store water, carbon & nutrients
reducing need for synthetic chemicals / soil
nutrients.
• Use of bioreactors such as biogas, anaerobic
composting reduces methane emission to air
and generates cleaner energy – reduces fire
emission and firewood burning.
• Regeneration capacity in very high after
disasters
Thanks