INTEGRATED FARMING

- a climate change adaptation strategy for

small and marginal farmers in low lands

near sundarban

Anshuman DasDevelopment Research Communication and Services Centre

West Bengal

India

Situated in the southern coastal areas of the West Bengal,

District South 24 Parganas includes the coastal mangrove

areas of the Sundarbans, a 20,000 km² area that stretches

across the Ganges Delta with 60% falling in Bangladesh and

40% in West Bengal, is one of the most vulnerable regions due

to climatic changes.

Some problems, intensified in last 2~3 year

- increased rainfall/occurrence of lightning, storm intensity and

frequency

- rains in the monsoon season tend to be more intense and persist for

6-7 days before they break rather than the 1-2 days that

characterised past seasons

- winters and summers have become warmer in the last 3-4 years

- intermediary seasons have changed – spring/autumn has now

disappeared

- summer rainfall that had the benefit of reducing temperatures,

supplying moisture to the soil, has declined

- freshwater flooding from the adjacent Hugli River

- gradual infiltration of saline water into the soil.

- water logging, water does not flow quickly out of the cultivation area.

Resulting into

reduced rice yields

crop growth delayed, increasing susceptibility to pests and diseases

erratic flowering of fruit trees

loss of cash crops e.g. chillies

Let’s take specific case of 3 farmers

Banamali Das Sukomal Mandal Gobardhan Patra

Total Land 0.6 acre 1.1 acre 0.4 acre

Cropping pattern Vegetables

during winter

and rainy

season, Rice in

winter

Rice in Kharif, some

vegetable during

winter

Rice in kharif, some

vegetable during

winter, Vegetable

during rainy season

Other Assets Home +

Homestead

Garden + pond

= 0.25 acre.

Pond + home=0.2

acre

0.05 acre pond

Family Member 7 Adult + 4

Children

2 Adult + 2 Children 10 Adult + 10

Children

* all of them having low lands, during rains/flood takes 3~4 months to recede –

making the land uncultivable

Common Problem

-Very small amount of land

- Low land, which becomes uncultivable due to long and unpredictable

water logging condition

- Unpredictability of climate (rainfall/temperature/fog/storm) effecting

germination and yield

- Pest attack increased

- Can’t manage to feed their family

Basic Intervention Principle

1. Ditch/pond/canal in the low land to drain the logged water

to make the low land cultivable

2. Raised bed and bund

3. Change the mono-cropping system to mixed cropping –

reducing dependency on single crop

4. Integrating other subsystem with crop subsystem to

increase resilience against loss of a crop due to climatic

vagaries and create linkages between various subsystems

to bring the cost of cultivation down

5. Using each and every vertical & horizontal space for

production

6. Extending farming season, creating on-farm, off farm

mandays, reduce market dependency

Water logged

Farmer1: Before intervention

Water logged

Farmer1: After intervention

1 Canal around the area

3 MPT in bund

4 Vegetable over canal6 Cowshed

8 Biogas

9 raised bed

7 Hen coupe over pond

5 Net over pond

2 Small pond

1Canal

2 net over the canal

3 MPT

4 Rain water hvst

5 Raised Bed

6 Small Pond

Farmer 2

1 Net over the canal

2 Paddy (SRI)

3 MTP4 Cow

5 Vermi

6 Canal

9 Pond

7 Hen

8 raised bed

10 water

logging

tolerant aurum

Farmer 3

Intra system dependency: Rice-fish-duck-azolla

Banamali Das Sukomal Mandal Gobardhan Patra

Crop Winter – 12 types

Summer – 8 types

Rainy Season – 17

types + Paddy-fish-

duck-azolla

Winter – 25 types +

Paddy (SRI)

Summer – 13 types

Rainy Season – 22

types

Winter – 10 types

Summer – 5 types

Rainy Season – 10

types + Paddy-fish-

azolla

Perennial

Tree

5 types of

fodder/wood/biomass

generating + 7 types of

fruit

5 types of fruit 6 types of fruit

Animal/

Poultry/Fish

5 Cows

8 ducks, 18 hens

Fish

2 cows, 6 goats

24 hens, 2 ducks

Fish

2 cows, 2 bull

24 hens

Fish

Bioinput Compost,

vermicompost,

fish/poultry/fodder

from his own plot, bio-

pestrepellents, biogas

slurry

Compost,

vermicompost,

fish/poultry/fodder from

his own plot, bio-

pestrepellents

Compost,

vermicompost,

fish/poultry/fodder

from his own plot,

bio-pestrepellents

Others Seed preservation,

Biogas

Seed preservation Rain water

harvesting, seed

preservation

Intervention

2082.5

1145.51680

992 821

6856.84

4990

3610

6240

419 169

3752.25

3752.25

4492

9553.2

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000O

utp

ut

Input

Inte

rnal

Input

Outp

ut

Input

Inte

rnal

Input

Outp

ut

Input

Inte

rnal

Input

Outp

ut

Input

Inte

rnal

Input

Outp

ut

Input

Inte

rnal

Input

Trial Plot Homestead

Garden

Livestock Biodigester Pond

Subsystems,Output, Input, Internal Input

Rs

.Impact: diversified output/income

Summary: Land shaping cost 5000 INR as loan. Total input 12235.5 INR (9497.75 INR is

internally generated), Total output 28222 INR + own consumption 13000 INR

48

25

24

25

23

40

5 10

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2006-07 2007-08

Enterprise

Livestock

Aqua

Agr

Impact: reducing livelihood dependency on single enterprise

Impact: energy/input cost/calorie/biomass recycling within

the system – making the system more stable

Before Biogas plant:

Fuel consumption: 25 dung cakes (300 g per dung cake) & 10 kg

of firewood per day.

After Constructing Biogas plant:

Fuel consumption: Biogas at the rate of 1.5 hours per day and

10 Kg of firewood per week.

+ biogas slurry for making vermicompost

No fossil fuel dependency, no mechanized tillage – no

irrigation/chemical fertiliser/pesticide

Impact: Clean Energy

Impact: Faming season extended, more days of work,

more cash in hand, no migration

Impact: More resilient shock proof system, can manage

water logging, longer summer

• Integration of animal, bird, micro organism etc.

reduces need for weeding & pesticide application,

improves shock absorption capacity, extends

number of working days, reduces dependency over

single livelihood

• Mulch farming, low/no tillage systems and using

surface water reduces consumption of

petrochemicals.

• Mixed cropping of plants with different root depth &

structure, resulting in optimal utilization of

water/nutrient and higher resilience against

environmental stress.

Summary

• Use of locally adapted plants, animals etc.

reduce the need for high external inputs

• Biological soil inputs, which enhance capacity

of soil to store water, carbon & nutrients

reducing need for synthetic chemicals / soil

nutrients.

• Use of bioreactors such as biogas, anaerobic

composting reduces methane emission to air

and generates cleaner energy – reduces fire

emission and firewood burning.

• Regeneration capacity in very high after

disasters

Thanks