India accounts for some 2.4% of the world's landmass but is home to about 17.52% of the global population (Anonymous, 2011). The Indian economy is predominantly agrarian and agriculture is a primary source of livelihood providing employment directly or indirectly to 58% of its population. Due to the rapid increase in the population and the decrease of agricultural land, no single farm enterprise is likely to be able to sustain the small and marginal farmers without resorting to integrated farming systems for the generation of adequate income and gainful employment year round (Mahapatra, 1994). The declining trend in size of  average area operational holding from 2.28 ha in 1970-1971 to 1.33 ha during 2000-2001 and 1.23 ha in 2005-2006 poses a serious challenge to the sustainability and profitability of farming (Anonymous, 2012). In view of the decline in per capita availability of land from 0.5 ha in 1950-1951 to 0.15 ha by the turn of the century and a projected further decline to less than 0.1 ha by 2020, it is imperative to develop strategies and agricultural technologies that enable adequate employment and income generation, especially for small and marginal farmers who constitute more than 80% of the farming community (Jha, 2003). To meet the multiple objectives of poverty reduction, food security with improved productivity, reduced income imbalance between agricultural labourer and urban factory worker, competiveness and sustainability, several researchers have recommended the farming system approach to research and development. According to National Commission on Farmers (2005), introduction of appropriate farming systems have been proposed as one of the approaches to achieve better growth in agriculture and livelihood.

 

In Jammu and Kashmir State, the share of agriculture and allied sectors in the Gross State Domestic Product stands at 25.81%. While as nearly 70% of the population in the state derives its livelihood directly or indirectly from this sector (Anonymous, 2009). The predominant cropping systems in Jammu region of J&K State are rice-wheat (59.92%) and maize-wheat (73.09%) in irrigated and rain fed areas, respectively. Other farming activities may comprise any one or combination of mono or multiple cropping, horticultural crops, agro-forestry, livestock, poultry, fishery, goat/sheep rearing etc. So far studies conducted on farming systems in the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir State are negligible. As farming system approach is gaining lot of importance in recent years, a need was felt to work out the predominant farming systems, their economics and resource productivity of crop and non-crop enterprises in this region so that, it enables the academicians and policy makers to make policies instead of blanket recommendations, a region specific, appropriate and tailor-made recommendations.

A multi stage random sampling was adopted for the selection of samples, with districts, blocks, villages and farmers as the first, second, third and fourth stage sampling units. Out of 10 districts of Jammu region, five districts namely Doda, Rajouri, Jammu, Kathua and Reasi (50% of total number of districts) were randomly selected. Then three blocks from each district were selected and from each block three villages were selected. The ultimate units, that is, farmers were selected randomly from each village so as to constitute a total sample of 450 (10 from each village) farmers from the whole area under study. The required information was collected through personal interview method, using well-designed and pre-tested schedules. The farmers were divided into four groups: marginal (0.01-2.50 acres), small (2.51-5.00 acres), medium (5.01-7.50 acres) and large (above 7.50 acres).  The data was collected and farming systems were identified based on the major contribution to income of farm enterprises.

 

Education index

 

Education of the households was measured by education index using the formula given below (Singh, 2009):

 

 

Education attained, that is, illiterate = 0, below high school = 1, high school = 2, intermediate = 3, graduation and above = 4.

 

Gross Income was computed by adding the income from all the sources including livestock, cereal, service and business.

 

Resource use efficiency

 

To analyze the resource productivities of different farming systems for improving the economic conditions of the farmers and to measure the contribution of specific factor in combination with other factors which are responsible for the change in the level of output, multiple regression analysis was used. The Cobb-Douglas production function in below form was fitted to the data:

Y_i = b₀ X₁^b1 X₂^b2 X₃^b3 X₄^b4 X₅^b5 X₆^b6 u_i  

 

Where Y = Gross farm income in Rupee; X₁ = Area under cereals in hectare (AUC); X₂ = Area under other crops in hectare (AOTH); X₃ = No. of dairy animals per farm (DA); X₄ = Expenditure on seeds in (`); X<sub>5</sub> = Expenditure on fertilizer and chemicals in ` (TFC); X₆ = Education index (EI); I = 1, 2, 3, 4, …….., n farms; b₀ = Constant; b_i = Regression coefficient, and U_i = Random variable.

 

 

Socio-economic characteristics of households

 

The study of the socio-economic status of sample households in different farming systems of different districts of Jammu region indicated in Table 1 revealed that 52 (57.78%), 62 (68.89%), 76 (84.44%), 37 (41.11%) and 90 (100%) sample farmers (X₁) were following cereal based farming system in Jammu, Doda, Kathua, Reasi and Rajouri district, respectively whereas 38 farmers (42.22%), 28 farmers (31.11%), 14 farmers (15.56%) and 53 farmers (58.89%) were following livestock based farming system, respectively except in Rajouri district wherein all the 90 farmers were following cereal based farming system. Farmers were earning about 79% of their gross income (X₂) from livestock in the livestock based farming system in Kathua district followed by Doda (75%), Reasi (69%) and Jammu (62%).  In cereal-based farming system farmers were earning about 95% income from cereals in Rajouri district followed by 93% in Kathua district, 89% in Jammu district and 81% in Reasi district. The data further revealed that except for Doda district, the rest of districts Jammu (7.80), Kathua (10.20) and Reasi (8.00) had higher family size in livestock based farming system. The education index has been found 1.30 in livestock based farming system as compared to 1.38 in cereal based farming system. The size of farm was more in livestock based farming system in all the districts except for Doda district. It was 1.83, 1.32, 4.40 and 2.01 ha in livestock based farming system and 1.72, 1.51, 2.40 and 1.23 ha in cereal based farming system for Jammu, Doda, kathua and Reasi districts, respectively. The cereal based farming system had  more employment generation potential as compared to livestock based farming system with 232.00, 199.00, 200.00 and 207.00 man days for Jammu, Doda, Kathua and Reasi districts, respectively with 291.00 man days in Rajouri district where not a single farmer had livestock based farming system. The livestock population varied from 1.14/ha in livestock based farming system to 0.83/ha in cereal based farming system with an overall average of 1.04/ha. Farming system wise combination of dairy buffaloes varied from 0.63/ha in livestock based farming system to 0.26/ha in cereal based farming system with an overall average of 0.76/ha. The data further revealed that neither of the farming systems had either borrowed credit for agricultural purposes or had Kissan Credit Card which is a matter of concern to bankers. The findings are in conformity with those of Singh et al. (2009) who had also reported that only 19% farmers were holders of KCC.

 

 

As regards the combination of cross-bred cows in the farming system, it was found that cross-bred breeding programme has not marked headway in the area and were 0.25 and 0.19/ha in livestock and cereal based farming systems, respectively with an overall average of 0.40/ha. As far as desi cows were concerned, they were merely 0.27/ha in livestock based farming system and was more in cereal based farming system (0.45/ha) as compared to livestock based farming system. The off-farm income in livestock based farming system was less (`159107.37/annum) as compared to cereal based farming system (`198231.60) with an overall average of (`175742.75).

 

 

The educational index has been found highest (1.30) for livestock based farming system in Jammu district and for cereal based farming system it has been found highest (1.72) in Kathua district. The study has revealed that both the farming system, that is, livestock based farming system (189 man days per year) and cereal based farming system (207 man days per year) provides large employment but cereal based farming system provides the 56.71% employment. The per farm per year cost analysis of livestock maintenance has indicated that churi/concentrate, family labour and green fodder are the major components of livestock maintenance in all the districts. The regression analysis has indicated that one percent increase in area under other crops (AOTH) in overall districts increase gross income ranging from 0.098%, in the case of livestock based farming systems, to 0.360% for the cereal based farming systems.

 

Policy implications

 

1. Symphasis should be given in cereal based farming system which includes wheat, rice, jowar, maize etc.

2. Each zone of Jammu region being rich in location specific biodiversity needs to be explored, so that  it  maybe beneficial for the farmers to adopt the farming system related to that particular area.

3. There should be government strategy for marginal and small farmers.

 

 

 

 

 

The authors have not declared any conflict of interest.