Designing and application of a Comprehensive Farm Assessment Index: towards efficient and relevant policy analysis

Suveera Gill, Ramanjit Kaur Johal, Siva K. M. Muthuprakash and Maitri Sharma

Indian Growth and Development Review, 2025, vol. 18, issue 1, 42-71

Abstract: Purpose - Sustainability indicators that allow integrated farm assessments have received increasing attention. However, limited evidence is available for the use of the same when assessing the agricultural sustainability of farming systems, especially in regions practising incessant monoculture. Therefore, this study aims to develop a holistic index to assess alternative farming systems based on a stock-and-flow framework. Design/methodology/approach - A composite metric was developed by aggregating the economic, social and environmental indicators. The methodology involved estimation, normalisation, hierarchical weighting and progressive aggregation of indicators to form the Comprehensive Farm Assessment Index (CFAI). The CFAI was applied to assess the farming practices of 88 organic and 90 conventional farming plots across three agro-climatic zones over two cropping seasons in selected districts of Punjab, India. Findings - Results showed statistical mean differences between the organic and conventional farming systems in terms of key production costs and income for wheat, rice and cotton crops. The normalised values of the selected social indicators were higher for the organic farming system. Similarly, in the environmental dimension, more biodiversity and less water contamination were found in organic farms. Except for paddy cultivation in the North–East region, the CFAI for organic farming is higher than that for conventional farming, even under the mono-cropping system with a single-crop rotation. Originality/value - The CFAI has ubiquitous applications and can be used to assess alternate sustainable approaches and practices across crops and regions. It provides a perspective on the social viability and ecological sustainability of agriculture, which would enable contextual and effective policy analysis and implementation.

Keywords: Comprehensive Farm Assessment Index; Conventional farming; Organic farming; Policy; Punjab; Stock-and-flow framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:eme:igdrpp:igdr-12-2023-0204

DOI: 10.1108/IGDR-12-2023-0204

Access Statistics for this article

Indian Growth and Development Review is currently edited by Professor Chetan Ghate, Professor Prabal Chowdhury and Professor Prabal Chowdhury

More articles in Indian Growth and Development Review from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().