Integrated Agriculture

When two or more agriculture activities, such as raising crops and livestock, are conducted in the same area, it is known as integrated agriculture. Combining activities helps farmers to get the maximum benefit from their land. Heifer projects support several different integrated agriculture activities.

Planting fruit trees in deforested areas and fertilizing them with manure from Heifer cattle and buffalo is one of the Heifer integrated agriculture systems. The fruit trees help provide soil erosion protection for sloping land, thus helping preserve the environment, while also providing nutritious fruits which farmers can either consume at home or send to market to supplement their incomes. The livestock manure helps the fruit trees grow, while the grass growing between the trees provides food for the animals.

Another Heifer integrated agriculture activity is paddy rice farming and fish raising. In many highland areas farmers have built terraced rice paddies on their sloping land. Some have dug a pond at the bottom of the rice terraces. The ponds, which are 200 square meters or more in size, then fill with rainwater flowing down from the rice paddies. Farmers release young plant-eating fish such as Tilapia into the ponds at the beginning of the rainy season. After the rice harvest, when the rains have ended, the villagers can harvest the fish from the pond.

The fish/rice paddy system has additional ecological benefits as well. In the past, rural villagers in the region were easily able to obtain all the fish they wanted for home consumption from local streams and natural ponds. However, with the growth of commercial fishing, stocks of many species have dwindled dramatically. The Heifer fish pond thus help preserve native fish in the wild.