Contribution of Integrated Farming System for Livelihood Security of Tribal’s in Pachamalai Hill of Tiruchirappalli District, TN: Detailed Overview

Agriculture plays a significant role in Indian economy. Agriculture is an important sector of Indian
economy as it contributes about 14% to the total GDP and provides employment to over 60% of the
population. In India about 70 per cent of the rural households depend on agriculture. India
population is equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population. India ranks number 2 in the list of
countries (and dependencies) by population. Due to ever increasing population and decline in per
capita availability of land in the country, practically there is no scope for horizontal expansion of land
for agriculture. For this reason, vertical integration of farm enterprises will make farming more costeffective
and reliable. Therefore, Integrated Farming systems can be proved as viable approach
represents an appropriate combination of farm enterprises, viz. crop production, horticulture, livestock,
fishery, forestry, piggery, poultry and goatry etc. in specific farming situation to address the problems
of sustainable economic growth of Indian farming communities. Out of 115 million operational
holdings in India, about 80 per cent of Indian farmers are marginal and small farmers. To achieve
sustainable development in income and employment to fulfill the basic needs of the farmers in plains
and also in hilly areas, an integrated faming system plays a vital role in India. The present study was
undertaken to recognize the contribution of integrated farming system on livelihood security and
sustainable development of Tribal people. Primary data was collected from the Tribal people of
Pachamalai hill situated in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu. Most of the respondents were
involved in the adoption of integrated farming system, but the components are based on size of land
holding, economic conditions, knowledge, experience and interest of the respondent etc. Eight
different components of Integrated farming system were considered in the study. Among them
agriculture with backyard poultry, livestock and piggery which are adopted by most of the
respondents. Farmers’ responded that integrated farming system has increased the economic yield
per unit area by providing income to the farmers round the year, providing food, nutritional security
and increasing input usage by the result of expected output. Hence, it is essential to create
awareness to improve knowledge, skill and attitude regarding the adoption of more components of
integrated farming system. Therefore it was concluded from the study that integrated farming system
is a powerful multidimensional whole farm approach, which is very effective in solving many problems
of achieving farmers’ livelihood security. Lack of awareness and technical knowledge, minimum credit
facility, less reliable market, non availability of critical inputs and follow up etc. have been identified as
the major constraints to promote integrated farming system in this area.