Answer: Integrated farming system is a sustainable agricultural system that integrates livestock, crop production, fish, poultry, tree crops, plantation crops and other systems that mutually benefit each other.

It is based on the concept that ‘there is no waste’ and ‘waste is only a misplaced resource’ which means waste from one component becomes an input for another part of the system.

Potential of Integrated farming system in Indian agriculture:

• Increasing farmer’s income : This approach is considered to be the most powerful tool for enhancing profitability of farming systems especially for small and marginal farmers. 
• For example: Keeping livestock can generate additional income for a farmer as its meat/milk can be sold in the market and its waste can be used as a natural fertilizer in the fields.
• Better Productivity : Studies on integrated farming systems show that small landholdings about the size of 1-2 hectare if developed into an integrated farm, have better crop yield per hectare than the traditional wheat-rice cropping pattern. 

• Effective management of farm waste: With its theory of ‘waste of one system is a resource for other systems’ , integrated systems utilize the waste in an efficient manner.

• Enhanced soil health: Integrated systems reduce the need for use of chemical fertilizers, thereby making the process environmentally sustainable and improving soil health. It enforces a cyclical system and reduces waste.

Challenges in its adoption:

• Economic Viability: Integrated farming systems involve a lot of upfront cost that includes purchase of livestock and additional farm labor for managing various sub-systems.

• Social Acceptability : In absence of role model integrated systems , farmers have a tendency to fall back to traditional rice-wheat systems even after getting initiated into integrated farming methods.

Steps taken to promote integrated farming:

• Government of India has launched schemes like the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture within which setting up of integrated farms is encouraged
• Opening up of  Mahatma Gandhi Integrated Farming Research Institute in Bihar in 2015 as a dedicated institute for R&D on integrated farming. 

Thus , integrated farming if adopted at a wide scale can not only increase farmer incomes but is essential in furthering the objectives of environmental sustainability and nutritional security in India.