Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemical Engineering

Article

Development of Agriculture Sustainability Index for Bihar, India: A District-level Analysis

  • By Surendra Singh Jatav, Kalu Naik, Vijendra Singh - 08 Dec 2022
  • Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemical Engineering, Volume: 2, Issue: 3, Pages: 1 - 23
  • Received: 28.6.2022; Accepted: 18.7.2022; First Online: 30.9.2022

Abstract

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are key milestones for socio-economic and agricultural development across the world. The impending threats to agricultural sustainability and its broad dimensions have been well documented by different scholars at the micro and macro level. The empirical analysis of sustainable agricultural faces many practical difficulties and the available studies are very limited in terms of indicators and quantification of sustainability. The present study tries to assess the agricultural sustainability of districts associated with Bihar, India. By employing an indicator approach, heterogeneity of districts in terms of resource accessibility was also examined. To estimate the agricultural sustainability index, district-level secondary data on 28 agroecological indicators were used. To capture region-specific heterogeneity, indicators are divided into six dimensions, i.e. physical resources, financial resources, human resources, social resources, livelihood diversity, and information accessibility. The data has been collected from Census, NSSO, MoSPI, and NABARD. We found that agriculture is moderately sustainable in Bihar and also emphasis on the district-wise socio-economic and environmental dimension deteriorates. Thus, there is a need for special focus on efficient use of physical resources as well as human resources and better management practices. The proposed framework for the measurement of sustainability has a potential tool for application in other parts of the country.


Keywords: Sustainability, Indicator, SDGs, Sustainability Index