Assessment of Agricultural Sustainability in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India: An Application of the Indicator Framework

Although there is a consensus on the definition of agricultural sustainability, there is a dearth of empirical evidence because of methodological challenges. The analytical framework will require incorporation of economic and ecological dimensions of agricultural sustainability and policy environment to promote it or otherwise. This study is an attempt to capture these dimensions and develop a composite index of agricultural sustainability for the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India using the indicator framework. The identification of the sustainability indicators was based on the review of literature followed by their revalidation by the experts based on the criteria of relevance and objectivity. In total, 79 indicators relating to soil, water, agro-biodiversity and productivity were selected, representing the status of the sustainability, pressures on it, and policy response to address the concerns. The robustness of the sustainability index was checked by employing various normalization methods and weighting schemes. The benchmark method of normalization representing a desirable range of the indicators, was found to be superior due to its usefulness in spatio-temporal comparison of the sustainability index. The results showed a moderate level of agricultural sustainability with an index of 0.52 for Haryana and Punjab. The framework has a wider applicability to assess the sustainability across the agro-climatic regions of India.