Eco. Env. & Cons. 28 (4) : 2022; pp. (2204-2209) Copyright@ EM International ISSN 0971–765X Scientific approaches for sustainable agriculture through integrated farming system A. P. S. Dhaliwal, Palwinder Singh*, Vinay Singh, Sarvpriya Singh and Gurmeet Singh Dhillon Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bathinda, Dabwali Road, Near Kheti Bhawan, Distt. Bathinda 151 001, Punjab, India (Received 9 April, 2022; Accepted 22 June, 2022) ABSTRACT The present study was conducted at PAU, Krishi Vigyan Kendra Bathinda, Punjab for the evaluation of the performance of ‘Integrated Farming System’ (IFS). This IFS system includes the field crops (Grains, oilseed, pulses and fodders), livestock (Dairy animals and poultry birds), kitchen garden, orchard, biogas plant, vermi-compost unit, mushroom unit, beekeeping unit and boundary plantation of forest trees that makes the system: economically viable, socially supportive and ecologically sound. These components were interlinked with each other and provide the benefits to one or more components and vice-versa. These links and benefits enhanced the farm productivity and ensure sustainability, profitability and balanced food availability. After adoption of advanced practices in each component net profit of four IFS systems increased by 8.6%, 8.8% , 8.2% and 6.3 % respectively in 2019-20 as compared to 2018-19. This eco-friendly model also reduces the environmental degradation by minimizing the use of Agro-chemicals. Due to the flexibility of this model, farmers can opt any combination of components as per their requirement and purpose rather than mono-culture practices. This Ifs system improves the economic condition of farmers as well as soil health condition of farmer’s field. Key words: IFS, Components, Evaluation, Sustainability, Profitability. Introduction In the present era, 85 % of the farming community belongs to small and marginal landholdings (Kumar et al., 2018). Due to the shrinkage of land and in- crease in day to day expenses, there is need to shift towards the diversify farming. The rise of Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) has empowered us to build up a structure for an elective advancement model to improve the practicality of small sized farming op- erations as comparable to bigger ones (Ravisankar et al., 2006). Integrated farming system (IFS) is the best instance for diversified farming which is economi- cally viable, socially supportive and ecologically sound option for small and marginal farming com- munity. This system includes a favourable and ad- equate combination of crops, livestock, aquaculture, agro-forestry, agri-horticulture so as to ensure sustainability, profitability, balanced food availabil- ity and employment generation. IFS gives greater importance for sound management of farm re- sources to enhance the farm productivity and re- duce the environmental degradation, improve the living standard of resource poor farmers and main- tain sustainability (Kumar et al., 2013). In this sys- tem, an inter-related set of enterprises is used so that the “waste” from one component becomes an input for another part of the system, which reduces cost and improves production and/or income. Inte- grated farming is a system which tries to imitate the DOI No.: http://doi.org/10.53550/EEC.2022.v28i04.084