Crop Diversification: Cropping/System Approach for Enhancing Farmers’ Income

Agriculture including horticulture is the riskiest of all professions as there are many variables affecting the outcome. About 86% Indian landholdings are less than 2 ha and are called the country’s small and marginal landholdings. They together operate on about 47% of the country’s 157 million hectares of operated area. Income from such small farms is insufficient to lead a healthy life. State- and location-specific cropping and farming systems with multiple enterprises with low-volume high-value crops, livestock, fisheries, and poultry have been recommended by state agricultural universities and ICAR institutions for adoption by the farmers. Agroforestry systems are most predominant in the arid and semiarid regions of India. Agroforestry practices are adopted by the highlands at Ziro Valley (Arunachal Pradesh); humid and subhumid regions of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka; arid and semiarid regions of Central India, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Karnataka; and the multitier cropping systems typical of humid tropics represented by home gardens in Kerala and in Northeast India. Perennial understory spices like black pepper, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, saffron, tamarind, and annuals like ginger, turmeric, and seed spices such as coriander, cumin, fennel, and fenugreek greatly benefit small and marginal farmers in supplementing the income. In this context, considering the population growth, use of energy, climate change, and globalization which call for agriculturists to develop dynamic cropping and farming systems that are highly productive and environmentally sound and economically viable. In this chapter the authors journey across the field of farm diversification collating the available information up to date to present them comprehensively to understand the situation in the context of ever-changing environmental conditions including climate change and to suggest ways and means of achieving resilience in the food and energy production systems in a sustainable manner.