Integrated agriculture: The future of farming?

DW (English)

Monocultures are a risky business, but a farmer in Tamil Nadu has taken an integrated approach to agriculture. The wide variety of crops and animals and e.g. using fish feces as fertilizer benefits both his enterprise and the environment.

Transcript

00:00These serene looking farms are taking over Tamil Nadu.

00:05It's called Molo culture and is an efficient way to produce large amounts of a single crop.

00:13But it can be terrible in many other ways.

00:16It needs fertilizer that's expensive and also depletes soil quality severely.

00:22Single crops don't support a wide variety of insects and need even more fertilizers.

00:28And these are risky as the climate changes.

00:31If the crop fails, everything is lost.

00:35But don't lose hope.

00:42There are small and medium scale farmers trying to flip this on its head.

00:46A different approach is showing great results on many of those fronts.

00:51Meet Shanmugasundaram from Erode.

00:55I've been doing this farming for over 30 years now.

00:59I often try new things to look to discover some new ideas in agriculture.

01:03My latest experiment is this plantain forest.

01:08Shanmugasundaram stumbled upon a method called integrated farming.

01:13It means that he now has goats, chicken, cows, fish and a wide variety of crops that now

01:21work as pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.

01:24It all started when Shanmugasundaram's plantain leaves got sick.

01:29He had heard that some fish have a superpower the plants needed.

01:40Fish faeces is known as sludge and can be used for plantain farming.

01:44I tried it and it gave me a good result, so I thought of using fish faeces as fertilizer.

01:50This is how I started smart integrated farming, which didn't only help my plantain farming,

01:55but also all the other crops that I started to grow.

02:01All the pieces of the farm are held together by fish waste at the center of the puzzle.

02:05There are six tanks on the farm, some for the fish and some for the ammonia heavy waste.

02:11This water is treated and sent into the soil.

02:14Above the fish are ducks and chickens whose waste feeds the fish.

02:18Shanmugasundaram found that far from depleting soil, like monoculture farms do, this kind

02:23of farming improved soil quality.

02:25And this was confirmed by studies on integrated farming.

02:30Earlier the carbon content would be only around 0.4%, but now it has improved to 2.5%.

02:37Earlier our yield was around 10 to 12 kilograms, but it is around 15 to 20 kilograms.

02:43So we can literally witness the progress in soil fertility and the results are spectacular.

02:53Employees on this farm work to use all parts of the plantain tree in an effort to reduce

02:57farm waste and increase profit.

02:59They make and sell laddus, cookies, chips and brownies from various parts of the plant.

03:06Studies across India show that integrated farming is one of the best ways to stay resilient

03:11as the climate changes.

03:13Farmers are less reliant on external inputs like chemical fertilizers.

03:16Since so much is recycled on the farm, multiple and diverse crops reduce the risk of failure.

03:22They also support insects and biodiversity.

03:25And they have higher yields.

03:27Best of all, when carbon content in the soil goes up, carbon in the atmosphere goes down.

03:33Many like Rahul from Pudakuttai, who also gets inputs from Shanmugasundaram, are joining

03:38the trend.

03:39He started integrated farming in 2023 and he has noticed another benefit.

03:47We have guava, fig, amla, coconut and 7 acres of groundnut.

03:52So by doing integrated farming, I am earning from crops and also there is an additional

03:57income from fish culture too.

03:59Unlike crop rotation, in which I was earning only once in a year, this helps me to earn

04:04monthly and on a regular basis.

04:08Integrated farming in India can and has raised the profitability of small farms by almost

04:12three times.

04:13And such numbers make Rahul optimistic about the future and he says he is already seeing

04:18effects.

04:19It's been 8 months since we started integrated farming.

04:24Before that we were using a bow well motor to pump underground water.

04:28That gave us some results.

04:29In integrated farming, we use water that itself is an enriched bio-manure.

04:35So we can see the drastic difference in the result from 8 months ago until now.

04:44But there are real challenges to integrated farming.

04:47Building the shed, tanks and system can be expensive upfront, especially for small or

04:52medium scale farmers.

04:54And seeking veterinary services for the farmed animals can add to it.

04:59Since it's a new approach, there is also a lack of knowledge and skill sharing between

05:03farmers as well as a fear of change from old systems that are better known and supported

05:08by governments.

05:09But those who have started this method do see potential and hope that others get on

05:15board too.

05:23If this method reaches every single farmer, then agriculture would be completely organic.

05:28All the fruits, vegetables and meat that we produce are healthy for all of us.

05:33In my opinion, integrated farming can help in building a healthy life for our future

05:38generation.

05:3986% of farmers in India are small or mid-scale.

05:48With the right support, access to finance and skills, there is a scope for such farming

05:52to benefit farmers and the environment.

05:58For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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