ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a discussion on the issues related to national policy on agriculture in view of the problems of ensuring the sustainability of agriculture. It discusses whether sticking to sustainability fanaticism would be consistent with the social and economic viability of farming from the point of view of national food security and the socioeconomic aspirations of farmers. The chapter draws on the material provided in a paper by Harvey S. James Jr, which provides the prevalent views on sustainability. From the point of view of sustainability, there is no substantial difference between the two sustainability approaches – sustainability best practices and the philosophical pursuit of sustainability. In both cases, the farmers as stakeholders are unlikely to indulge in ways and means of farming that do not ensure their long-term interests of having a continuous flow of high income. The chapter delineates works of economists like Douglas (1984), Thompson (1998), Francis and Youngberg (1990), Irked (1990), Allen (1991) and Jones (1993) and how they arrived at the conclusion that farming has to be not only commercially and economically efficient to earn farmers adequate profits but also friendly to ecology and farming communities. It is also argued that even Adam Smith’s invisible hand does not authorize an unbridled quest for maximizing individual gain, relying on the same rationale of individuals exercising a basic concern to protect their long-term socioeconomic interests.
