Construction of a composite index to assess the agricultural development of tribal farmers under Tribal Sub-Plan in Meghalaya

Abstract

Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) project was implemented by Central Agricultural University (CAU), Imphal during the crop year 2016-17 in two agriculturally important districts of Meghalaya namely Ri-Bhoi district and West Garo Hills district to improve the livelihood status of the tribals. The general objective of the project was to enhance the socio-economic status and livelihood security of the tribal farmers of the state. The beneficiary farmers were provided with different kinds of inputs and trainings. The aim of the study was to study construct a composite index called Tribal Agricultural Development Index (TADI) to assess the performance of TSP. A total of 390 respondents were selected for the study through complete enumeration of beneficiary farmers under TSP from five villages each from Umsning, Ri-Bhoi district and Rongram, West Garo Hills district Community and Rural Development Blocks (CRDBs). The result indicated that there was moderate (70.77 %) achievement in all the domains of TSP.