Attitude of farmers towards sustainability of vegetable cultivation

Study was conducted in two community development blocks from Kullu district, viz., Kullu and Manali, selected purposively sampling with the purpose that these blocks have maximum area in the vegetables cultivation. From each selected block, ten villages were selected randomly. Over all twenty villages were and 30 vegetable growers from each village were selected randomly. Thus, a total number of 600 farmers were selected for the study. The mean attitude score of the farmers towards sustainability was 58.25 which indicated the midpoint of the scale. Farmers’ attitude was more favourable in relation to the items which were related to ‘natural resources conservation’ component. Non-availability of organic manures in required quantities might be the major reason for the farmers to take this pragmatic attitudinal position on few items of scale. This suggested that there is continuing ambiguity about the concept among farmers, which prevented them from polarizing their attitude clearly. Therefore, extension organizations should take measures to educate and convince the farmers about the prospects of sustainability.