Assessment of Sustainability and Priorities for Development of Indian West Coast Region: An Application of Sustainable Livelihood Security Indicators

Viswanatha Reddy Krishna, Venkatesh Paramesh, Vadivel Arunachalam, Bappa Das, Hosam O. Elansary, Arjun Parab, Dendi Damodar Reddy, K. S. Shashidhar, Diaa O. El-Ansary, Eman A. Mahmoud and Mohamed A. El-Sheikh
Additional contact information
Viswanatha Reddy Krishna: ICAR-Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh-533105, India
Venkatesh Paramesh: ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa, Goa 403402, India
Vadivel Arunachalam: ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa, Goa 403402, India
Bappa Das: ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa, Goa 403402, India
Hosam O. Elansary: Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Arjun Parab: ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa, Goa 403402, India
Dendi Damodar Reddy: ICAR-Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh-533105, India
K. S. Shashidhar: Department of Agronomy, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur 795004, India
Diaa O. El-Ansary: Precision Agriculture Laboratory, Department of Pomology, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria 21545, Egypt
Eman A. Mahmoud: Department of Food Industries, Damietta University, Damietta 34517, Egypt
Mohamed A. El-Sheikh: Botany & Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-19

Abstract: The measurement of sustainability in terms of social, economic, and ecological indicators significantly influences the achievement of sustainable development goals. This paper presents a sustainable livelihood security index (SLSI) by selecting 20 indicators and positions them within the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development for the Indian west coast. These indicators were first normalized and, using estimated weights, indices were computed. Important indicators were shortlisted by a two-step process, namely, principal component analysis and linear and nonlinear weighted scores. The results revealed that indicators such as forest cover, net sown area, milk availability, groundwater availability, land productivity, food grain availability, rural road connectivity, villages electrified, and land degradation were found to be important indicators. Kerala was found as the most developed state followed by Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Goa in linear and non-linear weighted scoring. The study identifies the Jamnagar, Junagadh, Kachchh, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg districts as the districts with the highest priority for development through investment and policy interventions. The study concludes that the west coast region, in terms of its sustainable development levels, improved significantly with a focus on low-SLSI districts by considering ecological, economic, and social dimensions in planning for technological development and dissemination.

Keywords: development; India; indicators; planning; policy; sustainable livelihood security index; west coast (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8716/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8716/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8716-:d:432186

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().