Constraints Faced by the Farmers While Following Integrated Farming System in Cooch Behar District of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Agriculture remains central to India’s food security and rural livelihoods, but small landholdings, rising costs, and climate risks challenge conventional farming systems. Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) offer a sustainable solution by enhancing productivity, income diversification, and resource efficiency, though adoption is constrained by limited awareness, training, credit access, and institutional support. The study was carried out in three blocks of the Cooch Behar district, where a considerable number of farmers have adopted the Integrated Farming System (IFS) as a means of securing their livelihoods. A multistage sampling procedure involving purposive and random sampling techniques were employed for the selection of respondents. A structured interview schedule was developed and data were collected through the personal interview method. Data were collected using well-structured questionnaire from September to December of 2021. In total, 175 farmers practicing the IFS were selected as respondents for the study to analyse the constraints faced by them and to document their suggestive measures for improving the effectiveness of the system. The study revealed that majority of the IFS farmers considered the constraint ‘lack of capital/ finance to start and maintain more than one enterprise’- (93.71 %) as a major one, followed by ‘lack of proper marketing channels at village level’- (90.28 %) as a second major constraint. In case of suggestive measures the suggestion ‘easy or low interest rates on loans to small and marginal farmers to establish IFS’- (91.42 %) was important among all, followed by ‘proper marketing channels which can be accessible to farmers, should made available to farmers to market their outputs they got from IFS models’- (87.42 %) ranked second. The study suggest the policy makers to make a proper plan to make the farmers overcome the constraints mentioned by them.