Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertation

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HAS caught the imagination andaction all over the world for more than a decade. Environmental impacts ofagricultural production processes, in fact, are influenced by the climate, thesoil type, the agricultural practices and many other factors that make impactsextremely variable and, subsequently, hard to control and reduce. In thiscontext, organic farming aims at being climate friendly with respect toconventional farming, by granting a lower carbon footprint and reducedenvironmental impacts. India is bestowed with lot of potential to produceall varieties of organic products due to its agro-climatic regions. In severalparts of the country, the inherited tradition of organic farming is an addedadvantage. This holds promise for the organic producers to tap the marketwhich is growing steadily in the domestic market related to the export market.Organic farming systems have attracted increasing attention over the lastone decade because they are perceived to offer some solutions to the currentproblems in the Indian agricultural sector. However, some farmers arereluctant to convert because of the perceived high costs and risks involvedin organic farming. Despite the attention which has been paid to organicfarming over the last few years, very little accessible information actuallyexists on the costs and returns of organic farming in India. So, sinceprofitability is the most important factor for a farmer, in this paper weanalyzed the economics of organic vis-a-vis non-organic (conventional)farming practices in India.ASHISH KU