Agriculture plays a vital role in the economy of Nagaland contributing 28.71 per cent to the Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) and is the largest employer of the working force in the state. Rice is the staple food of the people in Nagaland. The two methods of rice cultivation practised in the state are jhum and Wet land Transplanted Rice Cultivation (WTRC - consisting both low land and terrace rice cultivation). The productivity in case of WTRC is higher than jhum whereas the area under jhum is higher than that of WTRC. With increase in area of cultivation and implementation of better technologies, rice production and productivity in the state has increased but it is still lower as compared to average productivity of North-east hill states. The farming system in Nagaland is basically rice based so the rice farms needs to be sustainable else the farming community will be adversely affected. Hence, the present study was conducted to study the costs and returns in rice cultivation and to assess the economic, social and ecological sustainability of rice farming at farm level. The study was conducted in Dimapur and Mokokchung districts of Nagaland. A sample of 80 farmers was drawn using multistage sampling from four blocks of the selected districts. To attain the first objective various cost and returns concepts was used and to assess sustainability at farm level, Farm Sustainability Index (FSI) was constructed following the Human Development Index developed by UNDP. Per hectare cost of cultivation was `49575.80/ha and the cost incurred on hired labour has the major share (30.70%) in it. Cost of cultivation was higher in upland (`55678.40/ha) as compared to lowland (`42721.37/ha) and it was higher in case oflandraces (`54302.27/ha) than HYVs (`46815.27/ha). The net return per hectare was calculated to be `3583.39 which was positive in lowland (`11477.75) and negative in upland, and in farms cultivating HYVs it was positive (`6618.14) but was negative in case of farms cultivating landraces. Majority of the farms in lowland were moderately sustainable (86.05%) and in upland most of the farms were sustainable (70.27%). About 54.55 per cent of the farms cultivating landraces were moderately sustainable and 45.45 per cent of the farms were sustainable. About 80.00 per cent of the HYV farms were moderately sustainable and 20.00 per cent were sustainable. It is suggested that extension initiatives should be taken up to create awareness about recommended seed rate of HYVs in lowland situation and small scale mechanization suited to upland situation should be adopted to reduce the human labour cost. Crop diversification through cultivation of catch crops coupled with conservative tillage practices should be adopted to improve the sustainability level of the rice farms which turned out to be least sustainable economically and ecologically.
Key words: Wet land transplanted rice cultivation, Cost of cultivation, Net return, Farm sustainability, Nagaland.