Diversified Farming System for Doubling Farmers Income in Western Maharashtra

Crop diversification is needed to give a wider choice in the production of a variety of crops in a given area so as to expand production related activities on various crops and also to lesson risk. Crop diversification is generally viewed as a shift from traditional grown less remunerative crops to more remunerative crops. The crop diversification also takes place due to governmental policies and thrust on some crops over a given time. Market infrastructure development and certain other price related supports also induce diversification. The ‘On Farm Research Scheme’ is a component of All India Co-ordinate Research Project on Integrated Farming Systems. The experiments have been conducted on farmer’s field in six centers of Pune district with objectives to estimate the profitability of selected households through diversification, to improve the livelihood and nutritional security through diversification, to estimate the impact of capacity building through diversification and to study the constraints in diversification. Six villages in two blocks, four farmers in each selected village were selected. Thus, total 24 farmers were selected for present study. The experimental trials were conducted in Kharif 2013 and Rabi-2014. Low yield and long duration of existing varieties replaced by improved varieties. In kharif season, Groundnut replaced by Soybean, Darna variety of paddy replaced by Phule samrudhi, local and MACS-123 variety of soybean replaced by JS-335, Panchganga variety of Maize (fodder) replaced by African tall, Grass replaced by Phule Jayawant variety of Hybrid.