Abstract:
Farmer sustainability index (FSI) was developed to measure the adoption of sustainable practices
by traditional rice growers of Kuttanad agro-ecosystem in Kerala. Based on the mean FSI scores of each
group, the groups were named as conventional and sustainable. The results indicate a wide range between the
mean FSI scores of conventional (23.95) and sustainable (70.06) adopter categories. The conventional and
sustainable adopter categories maintained significantly distinct positions on all selected practices and also on
the overall total FSI scores. It proved that the conventional and sustainable groups acted differently on all
production practices in concordance with their technological allegiance.
