Agro-economic analysis of integrated farming systems for small and marginal farmers

Abstract:

A smallholder farmer near Lome once described her transition from growing maize alone to running a small integrated crop-livestock-poultry-fishery operation as feeling less like adding new work and more like finally putting her farm's existing resources, crop residue for feed, pond water for irrigation, manure for fertilizer, to use rather than letting them go to waste. This research set out to test whether that farmer's experience reflects a broader economic pattern, comparing annual net farm income across 96 small and marginal farm households operating under four cropping and livestock combination levels, crop-only, crop plus livestock, crop plus livestock plus poultry, and a fully integrated crop-livestock-poultry-fishery system. Annual net farm income rose steadily and substantially with each additional component added to the farming system, from 42,000 currency units under crop-only management to 89,000 currency units under the fully integrated system, more than double the crop-only baseline. Income diversification also reduced income variability across the farming year, with the fully integrated system showing a coefficient of variation in monthly income 34% lower than crop-only farms, reflecting the benefit of income streams with different seasonal timing rather than all farm income concentrated around a single crop harvest window. Resource recycling analysis showed each additional component contributing not only its own direct income but a measurable input-cost saving to other components, crop residue feeding livestock, livestock manure fertilizing crops, and pond sediment enriching adjacent cropland, together reducing external input purchase by an estimated 22% relative to the equivalent components managed as separate, non-integrated enterprises. These findings support integrated farming system promotion as a genuinely effective strategy for raising both income level and income stability among small and marginal farmers, with resource recycling functioning as a distinct and quantifiable economic benefit beyond simple income diversification alone.