Integrated Farming System (IFS) ensures environmental sustainability and also significantly improves farm income through integration of farming with multiple enterprises that utilize the available natural resources to meet the household needs. Want to improve farming conditions? The proposed project would help in enhancing agricultural productivity and improving the livelihoods of associated families through adoption of integrated farming practices in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. This sample proposal will also enhance agricultural productivity through the adoption of Integrated Farming System in the identified project sites in South Asia. If you want to develop your own proposal on this particular subject. Take complete look of this Sample proposal on Integrated Farming System.
Summary
It is well documented that Integrated Farming System (IFS) ensures environmental sustainability and also significantly improves farm income through integration of farming with multiple enterprises that utilize the available natural resources to meet the household needs. The proposed project would help in enhancing agricultural productivity and improving the livelihoods of associated families through adoption of integrated farming practices in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The project will be benefiting a total of 150 villages in the three countries and 10,000 farming households (Small and marginalized farmers) will be trained on various aspects of integrated farming systems.
Application form to be filled in English only not to exceed 15 pages.
- Date of submission: 5th June 2021
- Type of Grant: Organizational ☒ Individual ☐
- Focus area of the project: Rural areas in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan covering over 150 villages and 10000 farming households.
- Goal of the project:The proposed project would help in enhancing agricultural productivity and improving the livelihoods of associated families through adoption of integrated farming practices in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Project background
Research reveals that warming would cause damage to Asian agriculture impacting both the agriculture productivity and the quality of food produce. Looking at warming alone, a 1.5⁰C warming would reduce crop net revenues by 13% or US$93 billion/year. A 3⁰C warming would reduce net revenues by 28% or US$195 billion/year
Crop yield studies focusing on India have found that global warming has reduced wheat yield by 5.2% from 1981 to 2009, despite adaptation (Gupta et al. 2017). It is projected that climate change would reduce rain-fed maize yield by an average of 3.3–6.4% in 2030 and 5.2–12.2% in 2050 and irrigated yield by 3–8% in 2030 and 5–14% in 2050 if current varieties were grown (Tesfaye et al. 2017). Similar trends have also been observed in other South Asian countries as well. Despite variability in input use and crop management, there is a negative effect of both season-long and terminal heat stress on rice and wheat. (Arshad et al. 2017).
Asia has a large concentration of small and marginal farmers (>70%). It also has approximately 15 % of the population i.e. around 1 billion of people living in extreme poverty and most of them (75%) of the vulnerable people live in rural areas. The proposed project will help in pulling out the marginalized farmers in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan from extreme poverty through the adoption of IFS practices. To improve the livelihoods of the rural communities and also to maintain the local and international food demand, there is an urgent need to introduce and adapt improved farming practices. Integrated farming will help the marginalized and small farmers to increase their net earnings in the wake of falling agricultural productivity on one hand and at the other will help improve the standard of nutrition available to them.
Proposed Idea
The proposed project will enhance agricultural productivity through the adoption of Integrated Farming System in the identified project sites in South Asia. It is well documented that IFS ensures environmental sustainability and also significantly improves farm income through integration of farming with multiple enterprises that utilize the available natural resources to meet the household needs. One of the main objectives of IFS is to reduce the dependence of the farming households on external resources for their day to day requirement. The resources used in integrated farming are recycled and used in a way that they are complementary to each other and one resource feeds into another. The basic principle of the IFS concept is the combination of agriculture and livestock enterprises in a supplementary and complementary manner (Jayanthi et al., 2000; Agbonlahor et al., 2003). According to recent studies, integrated farming system will prove to be beneficial in the identified project sites due to the following characteristics:
- It is problem solving.
- It is holistic as the whole farm is viewed as a system encompassing interaction subsystems.
- It acknowledges the location specificity of technology solutions
- It defines specific client groups.
- It is farmer participatory
- It gives importance to indigenous technical knowledge system
- It is concerned with “bottom up‟ research strategy.
- It is dynamic
- It recognizes interdependencies among multiple clients.
- It focuses on actual adoption and on sustainability.
Considering integrated farming is a socially acceptable and economically viable intervention, through the project we would promote IFS in 150 villages across the three countries. We will be developing site specific IFS plans to improve agricultural productivity, household income and food security of 10000 households in the identified villages.
Objectives
- Development of site specific and appropriate integrated farming system plans suitable for different agro-ecological situations in 150 villages spread across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
- To demonstrate and promote integrated farming based technologies/ interventions to enhance the livelihoods of 10,000 households and increase crop productivity across the identified 150 villages.
- Establishment of 15 automated weather stations and rural growth centers to support farmers in the adoption of IFS models and facilitate in marketing of their products.
Activity plan
Mapping and Situation Analysis: Mapping and situation analysis will help us in getting a better understanding of the various aspects related to agriculture in the project sites. When planning an integrated farming system for a particular location, the following needs to be assessed:
- Soil and climatic features of the selected area
- Availability of the resources, land, labour & capital
- Present level of utilization of resources
- Economics of proposed integrated farming system
- Managerial skill of farmer
Data collected during the mapping exercise will help in identification of major issues/constraints and opportunities associated with agriculture in the area and will then help in developing suitable IFS strategies to cope with the challenges. This preliminary assessment would be done through stakeholder meetings, cognitive mapping, resource mapping, collecting historical climate data, present day climate variability data, and vulnerability tools etc.
- Development of suitable Integrated Farming System (IFS) plans: Based on the information gathered during the situation analysis, site specific IFS plans will be developed. The IFS plan will provide details of suggested interventions/ strategies related to food security, water availability and livelihood enhancement for the local communities. Our expert teams will then develop IFS models to suit the different agro-ecological zones. Some of the possible IFS plans that can be used are:
- Agriculture + Pisciculture
- Agriculture +Livestock (Dairy/Piggery/Poultry/Duckery)
- Agriculture + Livestock +Mushroom/Sericulture/Apiculture
- Agriculture + Multipurpose tree plantation /Horticulture/ Vegetable farming
The exact model for each village will be developed only after the situation and market analysis.
- Awareness Generation: Awareness generation is a key activity towards achieving project success. Locals will adopt IFS practices only after they understand the implications of integrated farming practices on food security, energy and water availability. Audio- Visual material will be developed to sensitize the local communities on climate change risks and threats. Leaflets, booklets, flashcards will be developed in vernacular to create greater impact.
- Identification of direct beneficiaries: The project will help the most vulnerable and deprived households in the project villages. Our teams will collect baseline data of the villages and 10000 vulnerable households will be selected from the 150 villages (Approx 50-70 households from each village). Depending on the resource availability and experience of the identified households, specific IFS demonstration models will be piloted to suit the climatic and agro-ecology of the area.
- Build Capacities of the communities: Area specific technologies that are aligned to agro-ecological, cultural and socio-economic conditions of the area will be promoted in the identified villages. The identified households will be trained on various aspects of Integrated Farming. Adoption of the various interventions will help in improving the biological, social and economic systems of the project site. Trainings and capacity building will be carried out in the following four areas:
- Enhancing Crop Production & Productivity: We shall promote innovative agricultural best practices which includes- Integrated Pest Management, Integrated Crop Management, Integrated Nutrient Management, System of Rice Intensification, Water Management etc.
- Diversification: An important aspect of integrated farming is the integration of agriculture with other suitable. We will train the households in the diversification of agricultural crops and integration of innovative agricultural practices/enterprises. Training will be provided on the following agri-based enterprises:
- Mushroom cultivation
- Medicinal Plant cultivation
- Apiary
- Sericulture
- Dairy/Poultry/Fish/Piggery/Duckery
- Agroforestry
- Water Security: For project sites that face acute water shortage, we shall train the farmers to manage water efficiently. Towards enhancing water security in the villages we shall be undertaking the following:
- Restoration/Renovation of ponds and tanks.
- Water harvesting systems will be developed and installed.
- Plantation of trees and grasses that help in sponge action and improve water infiltration.
- Revival of traditional springs through community action.
- Soil Conservation: For project sites that face the problem of soil erosion/ landslides and land degradation (hilly terrain), we will be training the identified households in making and managing bench terraces, contour terraces and parallel terraces.
- Primary Processing: Towards enhancing the income of the identified families, they shall also be trained on primary processing of certain products.
- Installation of Automatic Weather Station: We shall be installing 15 automatic weather stations (AWS) on a cluster basis (1 weather station for 10 villages) to provide farmers with real time weather advisory. Based on the advisory provided from these centers, the farmers will be in a position to plan the various agriculture practices (sowing, irrigation, harvesting etc.) in a proper manner.
- Establishment of rural growth centers: To support the farmers on various aspects of integrated farmers we shall be establishing rural growth centers at cluster level. The purpose of the growth centers will be to provide quality seeds, machines and tools to the farmers. They will also serve as training, demonstration, information dissemination and marketing centers for the village cluster.
- Documentation of project learning: We shall be documenting the project learning in the form of operational manuals and case studies. The case studies and project learning will be disseminated through a series of seminars, interactive workshops, exposure visits, etc.
Project Outputs
- Site specific IFS plans for 150 villages of different agro-ecological zones developed.
- ICT on integrated farming systems published and disseminated
- Training on various agriculture practices and packages on crop management, water and soil conservation and integrated farming conducted.
- 10,000 households adopt IFS practices to improve their income and agricultural productivity.
- 15 Rural training and growth centers to facilitate training and marketing in the villages established.
- Water harvesting and moisture conservation techniques, such as water tanks and wells for small-scale irrigation installed.
- Terraces and contours for reducing soil erosion made.
- Use of organic sources of nutrients (e.g., manure and plant biomass) promoted.
- 15 Automated weather stations installed.
Brief Evaluation Plan
The project has the following plan towards ensuring successful implementation and delivery of various outputs:
- Submission of financial reports and fund utilization on a quarterly basis.
- Submission of progress reports with data and photographs on a monthly basis to the head office.
- Development of monthly action plans after consultation with the field team, to clearly set the physical targets to be achieved on a monthly basis.
- Monthly meetings with key stakeholders and farmer communities to get their feedback and understand the challenges that they are facing.
- External evaluation to be conducted after 3rd year and the 5th year.
- Annual site visits will be conducted by the project director to assess the field interventions.
