Crop (Field + Horticultural crops), Cattle unit, Fishery & Apiary

Banana Plant at IFS, AAU, Jorhat

Operational area: 1.0 hectare land; distribution of land for different activities are mentioned in Table 1.

Table-1: Land use pattern.

3.  Rice+ Vegetable 1450 sqm
4.  Fruit and Fodder crops 950 sqm
5.  Water harvesting structure with Fishery Unit 920 sqm
6.  Raised and sunken bed system 1200 sqm
7.  Seed bed/ Nursery 500 sqm
8.  Passage, Drain etc. 84 sqm
Total 10,000 sqm

Cropping sequences:

5 different cropping sequences were carried out to meet up different requirements of farm family are presented in Table 2.

Table -2: Area under different cropping sequences 

Cropping system Area (sqm)
Rice (w)-Toria-Cowpea(Fodder) 2187
Rice (w)-Toria-Green gram   789
Rice (w)-Oat(F)- Blackgram   920
Rice (w)-Potato-Lady’s finger   700
Rice (w)-Cabbage- Cowpea(Vegetable)   700
                Total 5296

Horticultural crops viz. Banana (Dwarf Cavendish- 27 nos.; tall Cavendish- 7 nos.), Assam lemon 50 nos., Papaya (hybrid), Guava (Allahabad Safeda) 4 nos., Pine apple (Kew) 344 nos., Orange plant 2 nos and King Chilli 7 nos were grown in the bank of the pond as well as boundary plantation to supplement farm  income and also provide nutrition to the farm family. Vermi-compost was prepared in 2.26 cu.m. Vermi-compost unit from different vegetables and fruits wastes viz. discarded cabbage leaf, pea plants after harvest of pea, semi dry banana leaves, weeds etc. along with well decomposed rice straw and cow dung. Liquid manure production from cow-shed waste was carried out in 3 chambered sedimentation tanks (total area- 2.34 sq.m.) and finally liquid manure was collected in a 0.18 sq.m. tank; Liquid manure was applied to fruit crops other than banana. Fodder crops like Setaria (Setaria sphaccilta cv. Kazungula) was planted which beside checking soil erosion also produce green fodder for the cattle; Hybrid napier was planted in 30 sq.m. area in the northern border of the IFS model.

Raised and Sunken Bed Module for Low Land (Marshy) Areas 

40 nos. of Raised and Sunken beds of 30 sq. m. sized were developed to optimally use the unutilized Marshy area which covered a total area of 1200 sq.m. Cropping sequences for the raised beds are Cabbage/ Potato/ Pea/ French bean as Rabi crop and Black gram/ Cow pea (Fodder)as summer crop. Cropping sequences for the sunken beds are Winter rice-Summer rice.

Livestock unit (Cattle):

Two cross breed milch cow(Holstein Fresian) along with a Heifer of 12 months old were reared. Approximate weight of milch cow was 350 Kg. The different breed of cattle in the IFS model is presented in Table 3.

 Table-3. Different breeds of cattle and their number in the IFS model.

Sl. No                          Breed Number
1 Milch Cow Holstein Fresian 2
2 Calf Jersy 1


Two ponds with 500sq.m. and 420 sq.m. were utilized for water harvesting as well as for fishery within the IFS model. The different species of fishes based on their feeding habit were reared and are presented in Table 4 and Table 5.

Table-4. Number of different species of fishes reared in 500 sq.m. pond

Size Type of species No. Individual % Ratio



500 sq.m.

Surface feeder
Catla 200 40 0.40
Column feeder
Rohu 100 20 0.30
Java Puthi 50 10
Bottom feeder
Kurhi 50 10 0.30
Mali 50 10
Mrigal 50 10
Total 5000 100 1.00

Table-5. Number of different species of fishes reared in 420 sq.m. pond

Size Type of species No. Individual % Ratio



420 sq.m.

Surface feeder
Catla 166 40 0.40
Column feeder
Rohu 90 22 0.31
Java Puthi 38 8
Bottom feeder
Kurhi 42 10 0.29
Mali 42 10
Mrigal 42 10
Total 420 100 1.00


Apiary Management:

Species of Honey bee: Apis cerena

Local Name: Indian Honey bee

As per recommendation for 1.0 ha area, 5 bee hives were placed in the bank of the pond and Indian Honey bee were reared in the bee hives; Apiary were tried to place in a shady area as far as possible near the Horticultural/ plantation crop to maintain an optimum temperature requires for bee. Holes are made in the boxes to allow air to pass through it and kept the honey bee active. During Rabi and summer season when flowering occurs in plants, Worker become active. Fragrance and pollen grain attract the honey bees and reproduction occurs during that time. During rainy season a sugar solution is prepared by dissolving 750g sugar in one litre of water, after that cotton is soaked in the solution and place in a Petri dish which was then placed inside the bee-hive. During winter season when temperature goes down to minimum level, Apiary was transferred to an area where proper sun light can be receive and there by maintaining optimum temperature. Plate form of the bee hives were filled up with water to stop the movement of ants.


Profile photo of Dr. Ajit Baishya