Crop–livestock-integrated farming system: a strategy to achieve synergy between agricultural production, nutritional security, and environmental sustainability

Introduction Climate change, nutritional security, land shrinkage, and an increasing human population are the most concerning factors in agriculture, which are further complicated by deteriorating soil health. Among several ways to address these issues, the most prominent and cost-effective means is to adopt an integrated farming system (IFS). Integrating farming systems with livestock enables a way to increase economic yield per unit area per unit of time for farmers in small and marginal categories. This system effectively utilizes the waste materials by recycling them via linking appropriate components, thereby minimizing the pollution caused to the environment. Further integrating livestock components with crops and the production of eggs, meat, and milk leads to nutritional security and stable farmer's income generation. So, there is a dire need to develop an eco-friendly, ecologically safe, and economically profitable IFS model. Methods An experiment was conducted to develop a crop–livestock-based integrated farming system model for the benefit of irrigated upland farmers in the semi-arid tropics for increasing productivity, farm income, employment generation, and food and nutritional security through efficient utilization of resources in the farming system. Results and discussion The IFS model has components, viz., crop (0.85 ha) + horticulture (0.10 ha) + 2 cattles along with 2 calves in dairy (50 m2) + 12 female goats and 1 male goat (50 m2) + 150 numbers of poultry birds (50 m2) + vermicompost (50 m2) + kitchen garden (0.02 ha) + boundary planting + supporting activities (0.01 ha) in a one-hectare area. The model recorded a higher total MEY (162.31 t), gross return (689,773), net return (317,765), and employment generation (475 mandays). Further negative emissions of −15,118 CO2-e (kg) greenhouse gases were recorded under this model. The study conclusively reveals that integration of crop, horticulture, dairy, goat, poultry, vermicompost production, kitchen garden, and boundary planting models increases the net returns, B:C ratio, employment generation, nutritional security, and livelihoods of small and marginal farmers.