Study on integrated farming system in hilly upland areas of Bay Islands

Abstract

lntegrated farming system, comprising the components like cropping, vegetables, floriculture, fishery, poultry, duckery and cattle (bullock, cow and calf) rearing was undertaken at Calicut village of South Andaman during 2004-06, to study the productivity, profitability, employment generation, energy flow and nutrient recycling for slopy upland areas of Bay Islands. Among the components evaluated, the highest net return was obtained from crop (81.09%), followed by livestock (14.3%), poultry (4.38%) and fish (0.38%). Employment generation was 346 mandayslhdyear under the integrated farming sytem. The net return obtained from all components was also higher under this system, with a benefit:cost ratio 3.30. To improve the productivity, economic returns and em- ployment generation for family labour, integration of all these components could be adopted instead of cultivat- ing the crop alone in the hilly upland situations of Andaman and Nicobar Group of Islands.