Assessment of agricultural sustainability: A study of farmers growing basmati rice under conventional and fair-trade systems in India

The agricultural sustainability at grass root level in India is under increasing debates, discussions and demonstrations with reasonable evidence towards economic vulnerability, environmental degradation as well as social disharmony. Initiatives like fair-trade are bringing agri-produce of organised farmer groups on premise and proclamation of making greater contributions towards sustainability. This research paper endeavours to identify most relevant factors and indicators for assessing the sustainability and compare for farmers growing basmati rice under fair-trade as well as conventional system. Primary data was collected on a self-administered questionnaire based on identified four factors of sustainability, i.e., economic, environment, social and governance, from farmers growing basmati rice under both, conventional and fair-trade systems. Data was analysed through descriptive statistics, structured equation modelling and discriminant analysis. Findings suggest that performance of fair-trade system on factors of sustainability is significantly better than conventional system and governance is most discriminating factor.