Economic Analysis of Integrated Farming Systems in Mahbubnagar District of Southern Telangana Zone

Aim: Farmers followed integrated farming but not on a commercial scale with heightened practices. However, local level characterization of different farming systems were analyzed on how adoption of farming systems and which remunerative components can improve their income levels, in turn their livelihood sustainability particularly, small and marginal farmers. Methodology: Mahbubnagar, a rainfed district of the state was chosen to understand the characterization of farming systems under resource poor conditions. Multistage sampling technique was used. Herfindahl index was calculated for selection of mandals. Two mandals, four villages from each mandal and 15 farmers @ each village, total 120 farmers were selected. Results: Four major farming systems Crop, Crop -Cattle, Crop - Cattle - Goat, Crop - Cattle – Sheep labelled as (FS-I, FS-II, FS-III and FS-IV) were identified in the study area. FS-IV (1.81)  was the most remunerative farming system. Even across different farmer sizes, it was found best with the highest Benefit-Cost ratio(B-C) ratios. The highest adoption percent was for FS-II (36.67%) followed by -I, III, IV (20.83 %), (19.2 %), (9.17%) respectively. Of the integrated farming systems, the highest remunerative component was Cattle for FS-II. (Cattle >Goat> Crop) is the declining order of the remunerative components for FS-III. (Sheep >Crop > Cattle) is the order for FS-IV. Across different size-classes of farmers (marginal, small and semi-medium), in all FS-I was found least remunerative. They showed consistent declining order of remunerative systems (FS-IV >-II > -III >-I) for marginal farmers, small farmers (FS-II > -III >-I) and semi-medium farmers (FS-IV >-II > -III >-I) Conclusion: IFS reaped higher returns than only crop farming system. Livestock components added more weightage on income yielded in each farming system. Across all farmers’ classes, it is concluded that integration of different components enterprises increased the returns. Marginal and small farmers have better B-C ratios than semi-medium farmers in all farming systems.