Eco-efficiency and technical efficiency of different integrated farming systems in eastern India

ABSTRACT

Integrated farming system (IFS), comprising various enterprises such as crop, horticulture, dairy, poultry and fishery optimally, uses farm resources to suit small and medium farms of India. In this study, 55 IFSs with different sizes and several enterprises were assessed in terms of their environment impact, eco-efficiency and technical efficiency (TE). The households, which own these IFS, were grouped into four major categories based on farm size viz., marginal (<0.8 ha), small (0.8–1.2 ha), medium (1.2–2.0 ha) and large (>2.0 ha). Among the farm size category, the highest eco-efficiency was recorded for marginal farms, whereas the lowest eco-efficiency was observed for small farms. The highest eco-efficiency was recorded for farm having five enterprises (INR195 kg CO₂eq. ha⁻¹) followed by four enterprises (INR190 kg CO₂eq.ha⁻¹). Among the enterprises, the highest eco-efficiency was recorded in fruits, whereas the lowest eco-efficiency was observed in dairy. The TE scores estimated using stochastic frontier analysis decreased with increasing farm size and the highest TE score was recorded for marginal farms, whereas medium and large farms recorded the lowest TE scores. The findings indicated the necessity for imparting training and demonstrations and funding support as well as subsidy for larger adoption of IFS to reap higher returns.

KEYWORDS:

• Acidification
• eco-efficiency
• eutrophication
• farming system
• global warming potential
• integrated life cycle analysis
• technical efficiency

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial help provided by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India and also thank the Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Director of ICAR-National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) for giving all the necessary help in executing the work. This work is a part of the farming system project (Project No 2.4) running in ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack and partially funded by DST, Govt. of India (Grant No DST/CCP/MRDP/143/2018 (G)). The help provided by Odisha University of Agricultural Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha for sharing the data is gratefully acknowledged. This study is a part of the project entitled ‘Delivering food security on limited land (DEVIL; Belmont Forum / FACCE-JPI via NERC: NE/M021327/1)’.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).