Basudev Sharma HICAST, Kathmandu, Nepal Contact me via: basudevsp@gmail.com

2. Farm: Farm is an area of land and its buildings
which is used for growing crops and rearing
animals. It is devoted primarily to agricultural
processes with the primary objective of producing
food and other crops. It is the basic facility in food
production.
System: A system is a set of inter-related,
interacting and interdependent elements acting
together for a common purpose and capable of
reacting as a whole to external stimuli. It is
unaffected by its own output and it has external
boundaries based on all significant feed backs.
Introduction:

3. Farming System:
Farming system is an approach for developing farm-
household systems, built on the principles of
productivity, profitability, stability and
sustainability.
The farming system approach emphasizes
understanding of farm household, community inter
linkages, reviews constraints and assesses
potentials. And it combines improvements desired
from better technology.
Introduction:

4. General Objective:
• To know the Concept, Definitions and Types of
Farming System
Specific Objectives:
• To acquire the information regarding the farming
system.
• To able to conceptualize the farming system
approaches.
• To know the different types of farming system
adopting by farmers
Objectives:

5. • Secondary source of information are used.
• Relevant information are collected from
published documents & other related
publications regarding farming system approach.
• Necessary information is also explored from
related web pages.
• Collected information or data are analyzed with
the help of simple data analysis tools.
Methodology:

6. • A farm is a system in that it has INPUTS, PROCESSES,
OUTPUTS and FEEDBACK .
• Depending on the type of farming e.g.
arable/pastoral, commercial/subsistence, the type
and amount of inputs, processes and outputs will
vary.
• Income through arable farming alone is insufficient
for bulk of the marginal farmers.
• The other activities such as dairying, poultry,
sericulture, apiculture, fisheries etc. assume critical
importance in supplementing their farm income.
Farming System Concept:

7. Inputs Processes Outputs
Labour
Capital
Seeds
Animals
Fertilizers
Pesticides
Ploughing
Sowing
Spraying
Adding Fertilizer
Harvesting
Grazing
Milking
Wheat
Potatoes
Barley
Seeds
Crop waste
Milk
Hides
Wool
Eggs
Profit/Knowledge

8. • Any farm can be viewed as a system, with INPUTS,
PROCESSES, OUTPUTS and FEEDBACK.
• INPUTS are the factors that a farm needs to work.
Inputs can be divided into two groups.
• Physical inputs are naturally occurring things such as
water, raw materials and the land.
• Human or Cultural inputs are things like money,
labour, and skills.
• PROCESSES are the actions within the farm that allow
the inputs to turn into outputs. Processes could include
things such as milking, harvesting and spraying.
Farming System Concept:

9. • OUTPUTS can be negative or positive. Negative outputs
include waste products and soil erosion. The positive
outputs are the finished products, such as wheat, seeds,
meat, milk, and eggs, and the money gained from the
sale of those products.
• FEEDBACK is what is put back into the system. The main
two examples of this are money, from the sale of the
outputs, and knowledge, gained from the whole
manufacturing process. This knowledge could then be
used to make the production better or improve the
efficiency of the processes.
Farming System Concept:

10. • Farming system is a decision making unit comprising
the farm household, cropping and livestock system
that transform land, capital and labour into useful
products that can be consumed or sold (fresco and
westphal, 1988)
• Farming system is a resource management strategy
to achieve economic and sustained agricultural
production to meet diverse requirements of farm
livelihood while preserving resource base and
maintaining a high level of environment quality (Lal
and Miller 1990).
Definition of Farming System:

11. • Farming system is a set of agro economic activities that
are interrelated and interact with themselves in a
particular agrarian setting. It is a mix of farm enterprises
to which farm families allocate its resources in order to
efficiently utilize the existing enterprises for increasing
the productivity and profitability of the farm. These
farm enterprises are crop, livestock, aquaculture, agro
forestry and agri-horticulture (Sharma et al 1991).
• Farming system is a mix of farm enterprises such as
crop, livestock, aquaculture, agro forestry and fruit
crops to which farm family allocates its resources in
order to efficiently manage the existing environment for
the attainment of the family goal (Pandey et al 1992).
Definition of Farming System:

12. • Farming system represents an appropriate combination
of farm enterprises (cropping systems horticulture,
livestock, fishery, forestry, poultry) and the means
available to the farmer to raise them for profitability. It
interacts adequately with environment without
dislocating the ecological and socioeconomic balance
on one hand and attempts to meet the national goals
on the other (Jayanthi et al 2002).
• Farming system is a unique and reasonably stable
arrangement of farming enterprises that a household
manages according to well defined practices in response
to the physical, biological and socio-economic
environment and in accordance with the household
goals preferences and resources.
Definition of Farming System:

14. Triangle of Sustainability
Source: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/53/1/012001/pdf

15. Types of Farming System
Source: http://www.civilsdaily.com/blog/the-8-major-types-of-farming-systems-in-india/

16. • Subsistence Farming System
• Conventional Farming System
• Alternative Farming System
• Organic Farming System
• Agro-ecological Farming System
• Bio-intensive Farming System
• Bio-dynamic Agriculture
• Permaculture
• Natural Farming
• Specialized Farming System
• Integrated Farming System
Types of Farming System:
Source: Rajbhandari, B. P. (2017)

17. Conventional Organic
It is based on economical orientation It is based on ecological orientation
GMOs are used GMOs are not used here
Synthetic fertilizers are used Synthetic fertilizers are not used
Weeds are controlled through herbicides Manually weeds are removed here
Pesticides and fungicides are used to control
pest and diseases
Pest and diseases are controlled biologically
Produced obtained will have chemical
residues accumulated in it
Produce is free from chemical residues
Air, water and soil pollution is common No such problem is observed
Produce is carcinogenic and causes several
health problems
No such problems are observed here
Low inputs : output ratio with pollution
Optimum input : output ratio with no
pollution
Soil fertility is maintained for shorter period Soil fertility is maintained on long term basis
Intensive irrigation is required Irrigation requirement are reduced
Difference between Conventional & Organic Farming

18. Source: https://www.slideshare.net/agriculturalchemistry/organic-farming-prospects-and-
constraints?from_action=save

20. Types of Integrated Farming System
• Crop-Livestock Farming System
• Crop-Livestock-Fishery Farming System
• Crop-Poultry-Fishery-Mushroom Farming System
• Crop-Fishery-Duckery Farming System
• Crop-Livestock-Fishery-Vermicomposting Farming
System
• Crop-Livestock-Forestry Farming System
• Agri-Silvi-Apiary Farming System
• Agri-Horti-Silvi-Pastoral Farming System

21. Types of Farming Systems
Commercial farming
 Farms that are operated with the goal of
producing more than the owners need for
personal use. This excess in outputs is sold for
profit.
 Commercial farms are often involve large tracts of
land. An example would be the large wheat farms
of the prairies.
 Commercial farms are capital intensive, meaning
they use more money and machinery than
humans.

22. Commercial Farming

23. Subsistence Farming
 Farms that are operated to meet the needs of
the owners with little or no extra produced.
 Subsistence farms usually involve small tracts of
land. An example would be a backyard garden.
 Subsistence farms are labour intensive. They
use people more than money or machinery
(capital).

24. Features of Subsistence Farming
 The whole family works on the farm
 Most of the work is done manually
 The farms are small
 Tradition methods of farming are followed
 Yield is not very high
 Most of the yield is consumed by the family
with very little surplus for the family

25. Subsistence Farming

26. Types of Farming Practices
Extensive Farming
• Farming with low inputs of capital and labour,
generally with low yields per hectare. It is
associated with regions of cheap available land
where high revenues are unimportant.
Intensive Farming
• Farming with a high level of inputs (capital and
labour) and high yields. Outputs are valuable
and often perishable. Intensive farming is
usually found in regions of dense population
and high land values.

27. Crop Rotation
• A farming practice that farmers use to protect
the soil.
• Fields are divided into sections with a
different crop planted in each section and one
section left fallow.
• Each year the type of crop planted in a
section is changed so that no one nutrient is
drawn out of the soil completely and one area
gets a break.

28. Source: http://www.civilsdaily.com/blog/the-8-major-types-of-farming-systems-in-india/
Crop Rotation

29. Shifting Cultivation
• Also known as “slash and burn” farming. This is a
farming method used in tropical and warm
temperate areas where there is thick vegetation
and a good growing season. The vegetation is cut
down and burned by the farmer and the burned
out area is used for a few years until crops don’t
grow well and weeds begin to take over. Farmers
then move to a new site and repeat the process.

30. Shifting Cultivation (Slash & Burn)

31. Terrace Cultivation
• The hill and mountain slopes are cut to form
terraces and the land is used in the same way as
in permanent agriculture.
• Since the availability of flat land is limited
terraces are made to provide small patch of level
land.
• Soil erosion is also checked due to terrace
formation on hill slopes.

32. Source: http://www.civilsdaily.com/blog/the-8-major-types-of-farming-systems-in-india/
Terrace Cultivation

33. Agribusiness Farming
• It is a unique, self-sufficient farming system,
much larger than a single farm.
• Agribusinesses produce all of their own inputs,
maintain their own processing facilities and
market their outputs.
• They are large enough to form partnerships
with international corporations and have vast
capital resources to be able to afford to
consistently update to newer technologies.

34. Sedentary & Nomadic Farming
• Sedentary farming is when a farm is based in the
same location all the time.
• Nomadic is a farming practice of raising livestock
where the farmer has no home base but rather
moves around with the herd to different grazing
areas as suits the farmer.
• This practice is found most often in
underdeveloped countries where land ownership
is not well defined, or is defined on a cultural
rather than personal level.

35. Source: http://www.civilsdaily.com/blog/the-8-major-types-of-farming-systems-in-india/

36. Source: http://www.civilsdaily.com/blog/the-8-major-types-of-farming-systems-in-india/

37. • Natural Resources and Climate
• Science and Technology
• Trade Liberalization and Market Development
• Policies, Institutions and Public goods
• Information and Human Capital
• Indigenous Technological Knowledge
Factors Determining Farming Systems

38. • Soil and climatic features of the selected area.
• Availability of the resources, land, labor &
Capital.
• Present level of utilization of resources.
• Economics of proposed integrated farming
system.
• Managerial skill of farmer.
Factors Determining Farming Systems

39. Challenges & Prospects of Farming System
• Food insecurity is increases with increasing
population & decreasing arable land
• Small and marginalized farmers with fragmented
land holding
• Increasing use of hybrid varieties
• Institutional and policy constraints
• Demand & Supply
• Market facilities

40. Conclusions
• Farming enterprises include crop, livestock, poultry,
fish, sericulture etc.
• A combination of one or more enterprises with
cropping when carefully chosen, planned and
executed gives greater dividends than a single
enterprise.
• Farming system may be either subsistence or
commercial which could be labor intensive or capital
intensive.
• Commercial farming is most important & we should
adopt to produce high quantities for growing population.

41. Reference Cited
• Rajbhandari, B. P. (2017) Bio-intensive Farming System
and Sustainable Livelihoods, Kathmandu, HICAST
Publication, with ill. Bibl. pp. 313 ISBN: 978-9937-0-2542-3
• http://www.hillagric.ac.in/edu/coa/agronomy/lect/agron-
4711/Lecture%201%20Farming%20system%20scope%20i
mportance%20and%20concept.pdf
• http://www.agriinfo.in/?page=topic&superid=1&topicid=
643
• http://www.fao.org/farmingsystems/description_en.htm

42. Reference Cited
• http://www.manage.gov.in/studymaterial/FSA-E.pdf
• http://www.appropedia.org/Conventional_farming
• http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-
899X/53/1/012001/pdf
• https://www.grin.com/document/279601
• http://slideplayer.com/slide/4878874/
• http://www.civilsdaily.com/blog/the-8-major-types-
of-farming-systems-in-india/