Sustainable and conventional farmers: A comparison of socio-economic characteristics, attitude, and beliefs

The main objective of this study was to analyze and compare the socio-econo mic characteristics, attitude and beliefs of sustainable and conventional f armers. The results show that there was a significant difference in the use of Sustainable Agriculture System (SAS) practices by conventional and sust ainable farmers. The response on two agriculture paradigms was significantl y different among the two groups of farmers. The probit coefficient showed that there was positive relationship between farmers' education, number of new farming practices adopted, and SAS. The results suggest that sustainabl e farmers were younger and have more off-farm income compared to convention al farmers. It was also concluded that affiliations with different farmer g roups/organizations does affect the farmer's perception toward SAS. The res ults of this study would be helpful to policy makers in developing strategi es and policies to enhance SAS in order to improve the environment and rura l communities.