Estimating agricultural sustainability in Gujarat using sustainable livelihood security index

Abstract

The paper has estimated agricultural sustainability in Gujarat by computing Sustainable Livelihood Security Index (SLSI) for 26 districts of the state using secondary data on various indicators under the ecology, economy and equity heads for the years 2001, 2011 and TE 2013-14. The study has found that in the year 2001, the district Surat (0.584) ranked first in SLSI, while Narmada (0.265) ranked the last. Later in the year 2011, Rajkot (0.589) ranked highest in SLSI, while Porbandar (0.257) ranked the lowest. During the TE 2013-14 too the districts Rajkot and Porbandar maintained their first and last ranks. The paper has suggested some measures for agricultural sustainability in the state in the years to come.

Impact of Climatic and Non-climatic Factors on Sustainable Livelihood Security in Gujarat State of India: A Statistical Exploration

“…The value of estimated SI lies between 0-1 for each indicator [15,25,37,[40][41][42]. If the value of an indicator (e.g., population density, population growth rate, urbanization, fertilizer consumption/hectare land, infant mortality rate) is negatively associated with SLS [8] then SI is estimated using below formula [26]: …”

“…Also, there is insufficient literature available which applied robust and rigorous empirical model to analyze the influence of certain climatic and socio-economic variables on constructed SLSI. Limited studies estimate SLSI for long-time data series at the district level in India [5,8,26]. Nevertheless, these studies did not undertake an empirical investigation to assess the association of socio-economic and climatic factors with SLSI in India using robust and rigorous empirical model.…”

“…These, heavy entrepreneurial activities do have an insignificant impact on SLS of peoples especially in the rural area in Gujarat. So, high diversity in SLS across districts is a very critical issue for policy makers in Gujarat [5,26].…”

“…ESI, EEI and SEI for agricultural sustainability in Bihar (India). Ghabru, et al [26] also estimated district-wise SLSI using aforesaid indicators in Gujarat.…”

“…Hence, SLS may be considered as a function of ecological security, economic efficiency and social equity [26]. In the present study, SLSI is defined as a relative index which covers most variables and provides the relative position of a specific district in sustainable livelihood security as compared to other districts.…”