Republic of the Philippines

College of Agriculture
Mindanao State University
Marawi City
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DEPARTMENT OF PLANT SCIENCE

ASSIGNMENT IN FS (210)
CONCEPT OF FARMING SYSTEMS

SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. BERNARDITA L. CALIPUSAN

SUBMITTED BY:
MR. ORLAN AMBA
Background

As the population exponentially growing nowadays, sustaining household food has been
an issue of primary importance to every farmers especially under the category of a small-scale
farming operation. It is expected that under this kind of operation, most of them are
economically poor and need to invite attention to innovate, intensify and develop essential
technologies for inter-disciplinary enterprises as part of their farming system approach.
Integrated farming systems seem to be the possible solution to the continuous increase of
demand for food production to feed the population and its sustainability with limited resources.
The expected outcome by integration of different farming models would be providing an
opportunity to enhance income, employment generation as family-oriented, and even in the
community, there will be nutrient cycling and alternate land use options. It needs a perspective
towards the development of new technologies, by integration of related enterprises with existing
available components/resources in the farm and use as another input for harnessing the vertical
expansion and profitability to achieve the family goals.

Farming System Model

1. Farmer

The farmer plays a vital role in the whole interaction of the system. It is the center
of interaction in the farm that serves as the implementer and at the same time, the
beneficiaries of all the enterprises output. The farm family has to be the center because
they manage the functionality and other the farm activities within the farm.

2. Crops

The crop is an enterprise grown for its essential function. Crop may have
subsystems like mono cropping, mixed crop/intercrop etc. Crop production is heavily
dependent on climatic variables, seeds, water, soil nutrients, biodiversity, and technical
knowledge of the farmers, that is why there is a need to intensify farm activities without
reducing the crop component.
The crops in the IFS model can be the source as the main or secondary component
of all enterprises available on the farm. Crops provide food for subsistence consumption
for households. After the crops have been harvested, crop residues such rice straw, corn
stalks, etc or even those crop leftover that hasn’t passed the marketing standards can be
the source of animal feed for the livestock’s and other option would turn to compost that
serves as organic fertilizer.

3. Livestock

Livestock components may be small or large ruminant and poultry species. The
said component provides food specifically meat, fuel, manure, drought power, offspring,
socio-cultural benefits and also transport services inside and outside the vicinity of the
farm. Integrating livestock into the farming system model could be a better choice as
another source of household income. Their manure now has a great value for the next
component in the farm.

4. Bio-digester
Bio-digesters can play a pivotal role in integrated farming systems by reducing
health risks, facilitating the environment by controlling pollution and at the same time
adding value to livestock excreta especially the manure through the production of biogas
and improved nutrient status of the effluent as fertilizer for ponds and crop land. Some
 crop residue maybe a wasted from the household that could be used also as organic waste
through the process of bio-digester. The effluent coming from bio-digester will not be a
waste but an input the other enterprise and that is a pond. As solid material decays, it uses
up oxygen, and fertilizer which is needed by the plant and animals living in the pond.

5. Pond

The pond component provides also food specifically fishes to the family household.
The Effluent coming from bio-digester can be recycled as an input as organic matter in the
pond sludge will soon decompose adding a variety of nutrients that the microorganism will
work for the development of algae that can be a source of food by fishes. Additionally, after
the fish harvest nutrient-fish pond water can be used to irrigate the crops in the farm since it
contains nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae which can improve now the soil fertility in the crop
component.

Conclusion

Adopting different farming system models at your farm even in a small scale-operation
could enhance the productivity of the farm as a whole. The Continuous flow of income to the
farmer provided by the different enterprises uplift employment opportunities for farm family
members.
While improving the profitability in terms of additional net return of the household,
maintaining and sustaining also the environmental aspect especially the soil health is necessary.
Thus, proper integration of all the components/enterprises within the farm and proper utilization
of inputs is the key to a successful farming system model.