District Level Sustainable Livestock Production Index: Tool for Livestock Development Planning in Rajasthan

Abstract

Since the past two decades, the concept of sustainability has increasingly occupied the centre stage for the development of the agriculture and allied sectors. With the manifestation of stagnating or declining productivity levels, widening regional disparities and the emergence of environmental externalities, the concerns emerged that development process should be sustainable, i.e., it should be environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable (FAO, 1991). Before targeting the policy interventions to maintain/enhance the sustainability of a crop or livestock production system, it is imperative to examine whether or not certain necessary conditions essential for sustainable development are present in a given region or ecosystem. The major approaches used in the literature to assess the sustainability of a biological production system in a particular region include, estimation of total factor productivity (Ehui and Spencer, 1990; Rosegrant and Evenson, 1995; Kumar and Mittal, 2006), computation of composite indices covering varied dimensions of sustainability (Saleth and Swaminathan, 1992; Yadav and Rai, 2001; Calker et al., 2004; Sen and Hatai, 2007; Singh and Hiremath, 2010) and Response-Inducing Sustainability Evaluation (RISE) (Hani et al., 2003). While each of these techniques has its own utility, the indexing approach provides a simple practical tool for indicating a set of projects and policies that can be implemented to address the problem areas that impede sustainability. In India, the empirical application of indexing approach has been made in the context of livelihood security, focusing on the ecological and economic dimensions related to crop production. Although in a recent study by Singh and Hiremath (2010), recognising the importance of dairying in economic and nutritional security of rural livelihoods in Gujarat; milk yield and per capita milk availability were taken as indicators in the construction of district level Sustainable Livelihood Security Index (SLSI), but