Livelihood and energy-carbon dynamics of livestock-based integrated farming system: Assessment and implications for sustainable farming

Challenges of climate-resilient agricultural production, along with environmental sustainability, guided the study on livestock-based integrated farming systems (LIFS) to explore their merits and implications for sustainable farming. Consequently, a 3-year life cycle assessment of a 3-ha LIFS with 30 adult cattle units and diversified components (45 % food crops, 33.8 % fodder, 17.5 % vegetables, 2.5 % flowers, 1.3 % fruits, and allied activities) was conducted to evaluate among its components and against the traditional groundnut-wheat cropping system (GWCS). The study assessed ecosystem services, including resource recycling, productivity, profitability, employment, and energy-carbon dynamics involving the life cycle assessment approach. Findings reveal that LIFS yielded 80,178 kg wheat equivalent ha−1 yr−1, US$8952 net returns, 4,55,368 MJ energy output, and 33,974 kg carbon output from inputs of 90,791 MJ energy and GHG emissions equivalent to 14,942 kg carbon. Compared to GWCS, LIFS achieved 8.4× higher productions, 6.4× greater returns, 6.6× more employment, 3.0× higher energy productivity, and 4.6× greater net carbon gain due to crop–livestock synergy with improved management. Among components, livestock dominated inputs (86 % cost, 66 % energy, 92 % carbon) and outputs (77 % production, 66 % returns, 59 % employment), thus playing a crucial role in production and environmental sustainability. However, horticultural crops showed higher unit productivity and returns. The carbon footprint of LIFS (0.69 kg CO2 eq.) was higher than GWCS but better than similar livestock + crop systems. Conclusively, LIFS enhances climate resilience and ecosystem services; however, optimizing livestock's energy-carbon use can further impart greater environmental sustainability, offering valuable insights for researchers and policymakers to focus on immediate adoption of LIFS for stable livelihood, along with setting the long-term goal for sustaining the energy-carbon use to evolve a ‘total sustainability’ of production systems in study region as well as similar agroecology worldwide.