Ranking of Districts of Andhra Pradesh According to Sustainable Livelihood Security Indices Values

By computing the Sustainable Livelihood Security Indices, the current research study aimed to estimate and rank the sustainability in development and livelihood status of thirteen districts in Andhra Pradesh (SLSI). SLSI is a compound index made up of three indices: ecological security index (ESI), economic efficiency index (EEI), and social equity index (SEI). It is one of the most comprehensive yet straightforward indexes for assessing long-term security in livelihood in the research domain. For the time periods of 2006, 2016, and 2017 the districts of Andhra Pradesh were ranked in three categories depending on their level of development: high, medium, and low sustainable. According to the findings, the districts viz. West Godavari, East Godavari, Guntur, Krishna, and Prakasham have stayed in the high sustainable category without modification among time periods 2006, 2016, and 2017. Chittoor, S.P.S. Nellore, and Y.S.R. Kadapa were observed to be developing at a medium pace. In all three years, the districts of Srikakulam, Vishakapatanam, and Vizianagaram were observed to have a low degree of sustainability in SLSI category.


INTRODUCTION
In 1972, during the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the conceptsustainable development earned its first substantial international acknowledgment. The UN coined the term "sustainable development" in its document "Our Common Future" [1]. Sustainable development, according to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WECD), is "development that meets current human needs without jeopardising future generations' ability to satisfy their own needs." It encompasses the interconnection and interplay of developments in environmental, economic, and social elements [2]. The concept of sustainability is always articulated in juxtaposition with the concept of livelihood. Livelihood is defined as all actions that are essential to lead a life by an individual or households through acquiring all the basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter, water etc., on a sustainable basis, Shyamalie et al. [3]. Sustainable livelihood explains the connection between people and their livelihood, Barela et al [4].
As the resources are scarce, there exists an imbalance between availability and actual requirement of goods and services created in catering the ever emerging needs of the population.
This causes economic, environmental and social unsteadiness which consecutively affects the sustainability in development in a region or a nation. Sustainable livelihoods concept provides a ray of hope in attaining the development in a sustained manner with greater socio-economic equity. To attain sustainable development goals, a region's sustainability must be improved. Such progress is critical, especially in nations like India where biodiversity is abundant. Several critical elements, including economic, environmental, and social indicators, determine a region's longterm viability.
Swaminathan [5] proposed the SLSI as an operational measure for determining the occurrence of conditions necessary for sustainability in a specific location. The SLSI contains three interacting components that correspond to the three-dimensional idea of sustainability: ecological security, economic efficiency, and social equity.
Analyzing the degree of sustainability with the application of a composite indicator called the sustainable livelihood security index (SLSI) is imperative. This SLSI can be computed using three indicators. The three indicators viz. Ecological Security, Economic efficiency and Social Equity, Amita et al [6] and Amarnath et al [7] were used for calculating SLlSI for Andhra Pradesh state. The fifteen variables chosen to represent the three components or indicators of SLSI are listed below.

Ecological Security Indicators
Ecological security is crucial to control and enhance the resource base of the economy. Six variables included were, 1. Population density 2. Proportion of geographic area under forest 3. Cropping intensity 4. Livestock density 5. Net irrigated area 6. Population growth

Economic Efficiency Indicators
Economic efficiency directs the most efficient use of capital and human resources within the current technical conditions in order to cater the everyday needs of the society. Four variables included under this indicator were, 7. Total food grain yield 8. Total milk production 9. Net sown area 10. Fertilizer consumption

Social Equity Indicators
Social equity ensures a wide sharing of economic benefits to society in form of sustainable and secure livelihoods, particularly for the socio-economically disadvantaged. Five variables included under this indicator were, 11. Literacy rate 12. Female literacy rate 13. Rural road connectivity 14. Number of the commercial bank branches 15. Number of the primary health centres Andhra Pradesh state was selected for the study because it has a high level of inequality, poor administration, over-exploitation of natural resources, and a rapidly growing population. These have posed a threat to the state's natural equilibrium, as well as socio-economic status of households in various districts. The state's effective development of sustainable agriculture has been jeopardised by constantly rising inequality. The goal of this study is to create composite indices of three indicators: ecological security, economic efficiency, and social equity, to measure the SLS in districts of Andhra Pradesh. The sustainable livelihood security index is an effective instrument for assessing sustainability because it is simple, easy to understand and informative. It is useful for developing policies and plans to improve people's livelihood security by introducing new income-generating tactics and increasing their knowledge.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The SLSI will be calculated using the ratio approach mentioned below, by using three indices: ESI, EEI, and SEI [8].
The SLSI was computed using the following ratio methodology, Singh et al [9]. Where, The equal weights of indices of corresponding representative variables will be used to compute three compound indices of SLSI, namely, ESI, EEI, and SEI, Krishna et al, [12]. The arithmetic mean of its component indices was used to generate a composite index, SLSI. The values range from 0 to 1. A score around 0 indicates a poor level of sustainability, whereas a value near one indicates a high level of sustainability, Sridhara et al. [13]. The research gap identified will be helpful to assess the level of indices to livelihood security for chosen districts. The parameters will be developed for assessing the indices to livelihood security with respect to the various kinds of livelihood security viz., food, education, economic, health and social security.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
From the In the year 2017, from Table 6. Districts fall under low level of sustainability were Anantapur, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Vishakapatanam. Followed by, districts with medium sustainability viz. Y.S.R. Kadapa, Kurnool, S.P.S. Nellore and chittoor. Further, remaining five districts viz., East Godavari, West Godavari, Guntur, Krishna and Prakasham were classified as highly sustainable. The similar results were also observed by Deshmukh et al. [14] and Mahima et al. [8] from their respective studies. Here, districts were classified for better interpretation under three levels of development as high, medium and low sustainable based on the overall Sustainable Livelihood Security Index score.  However, there identified no significant changes in the performance of districts. In addition, the SLSI category for Anantapur district was identified as medium. However, the district was deemed to be in the low SLSI category in 2017. Kurnool district, which had been ranked under low level of development improved to a medium level in 2017. In all three years, the districts, Srikakulam, Vishakapatanam, and Vizianagaram were observed to have a low degree of development in SLSI category. SLSI highlights the kind and form of policies that should be implemented in each study area for improving livelihood security alongside the overall development priorities.