Development of an Index to Measure Sustainability of Sugarcane based Dairy Farming

This paper is aimed at to depict detailed procedure about development of an reliable index to measure the sustainability of sugarcane based dairy farming as after careful scrutiny of literature, it was established that none of the tool is available to measure it. To develop the index, different construct such as sugarcane based dairy farming; sustainability and sustainability of sugarcane based dairy farming were constructed /adopted. After careful consideration, three dimensions of sustainability were selected; pro forma containing these dimensions of SBDFSI was sent by post, through e-mail and also handed over personally to the total 250 judges for ranking. Judges were requested to assign rank varying from 1-3 to the dimensions according to their relevance, the scale values of economic, social and environmental dimension were calculated which were found to be 7.42, 6.76 and 6.82, respectively.  In the next step, a total of 83 indicators under selected dimensions were prepared and after editing 74 were retained for item analysis. These were sent to the 250 judges for their rating in three point continuum viz., Most Relevant, Relevant and Not Relevant with respective score of 3, 2 and 1. Out of 250 judges, 38 judges had returned the same set of indicators after duly recording their judgments; however, 5 responses were found unsuitable for item analysis and eliminated after careful examination. The remaining 33 responses were considered for the item analysis. Data were tabulated and mean relevancy weightage, mean relevancy score and overall mean relevancy score were calculated. The statements having relevancy weightage (RW) > 0.85 and Mean Relevancy Score (MRS) greater than the Overall Mean Relevancy Score i.e., 2.60 were considered for inclusion in Sugarcane Based Dairy Farming Sustainability Index (SBDFSI) and finally 44 indicators were included in the final index.