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

Authors: Rajni Kant Sharma; Naseem Abidi; Rajnish Kumar Misra

Addresses: Maastricht School of Management, Endepolsdomein150, 2601 EP Maastricht, Netherlands ' Skyline University College, University City of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates ' Jaypee Business School, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, A-10, Sector-62, Noida, India

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: sustainability; farmers; fair-trade system; conventional system; basmati rice.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSAMI.2020.106549

International Journal of Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, 2020 Vol.6 No.1, pp.1 - 21

Received: 20 Jul 2019
Accepted: 08 Nov 2019
Published online: 09 Apr 2020 *

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