Development of a scale to measure the adaptive capacity of mango growers with respect to climate change

Introduction

Mango (Mangifera indica L.), belonging to the family Anacardiaceae, is one of the most important and commercially grown fruit crops in India. In the Konkan region of Maharashtra, mango cultivation spans over 1,26,241 hectares, yielding an annual production of 2,19,589 metric tonnes. However, the region's productivity is relatively low at 1.74 tonnes per hectare, which is about three to four times lower than the national average of 9.60 tonnes per hectare. The Konkan region, particularly the southern districts of Ratnagiri and parts of Sindhudurg, Raigad, and Palghar, are renowned for producing highquality Alphonso mangoes. Despite the favorable climate, the region's mango production faces challenges, including declining productivity due to climate change and other factors (Source: Anonymous, 2022). The Konkan region accounts for approximately 10% of India's total mango cultivation area, with Alphonso mango (locally called 'Hapus') dominating almost 90 per cent of this area. Alphonso mangoes hold a significant share of India's mango exports, contributing over 35 per cent to the total mango export market (Holkar, 2021) [4] . The region's warm, humid climate and rain-free period from November to May provide an ideal environment for Alphonso cultivation, which is highly prized both domestically and internationally for its unique sugar-acid blend, pleasant aroma, and exceptional flavor. However, the productivity of Alphonso mangoes faces several challenges. These include pest as well as diseases infestations, inadequate moisture retention, and serious physiological issues like spongy tissue, alternate bearing, and excessive fruit drop due to recurrent flowering. These long-standing constraints hinder efforts to increase productivity. To address these challenges, climate-resilient farming practices are essential. Such farming methods help prevent environmental degradation and make plants more resistant to pests and diseases, while also providing nutritionally superior food, by integrating climate-resilient agriculture (CRA), the region can improve soil fertility, manage water resources better, and enhance mango yields, all while ensuring sustainability and reducing the negative impacts of climate change on Alphonso mango production. Adaptive capacity means that ability of the mango grower to adjust climate change with special focus on climatic indices, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences or that enhances their adaptive capacity to climate resilient management practices'. Considering the importance of adaptive capacity among mango growers in climate changing situation, the present study aims to develop and validate this scale.

Materials and methods

In the present paper, Adaptive capacity has been operationally defined 'as the ability of the mango grower to adjust climate change with special focus on climatic indices, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences or that enhances their adaptive capacity to climate resilient management practices'. The major objective is developing a scale to measure the adaptive capacity of mango growers with respect to climate change. A standard and reliable scale was developed to measure this variable. The steps followed in construction and standardization of scale to measure the adaptive capacity of the mango growers with respect to climate change. The method consists of following steps:

Identification of sub components

The possible sub components of adaptive capacity were gathered through exhaustive review of literature. After through in-depth investigation and detailed comprehension, these sub components were consulted with the experts of agricultural extension, agricultural economics and horticultural scientists. Finally, 8 possible sub components of adaptive capacity were found and included in the process of scale development.

Selection of judges and their valuable opinion

Near about 110 judges were selected from State agricultural Universities, Krishi Vighyan Kendras, various ICAR research institutes, Ph.D. pass out concern scholars, to develop the adaptive capacity scale. These selected sub components with concerns statements were send to the judges through formal letter, personal contact, Whatsapp number and Google forms. They were requested to provide valuable opinion on the applicability and significance of the selected sub components with concerns statements and to mark their relevancy in a three point continuum viz., Most Relevant (MR), Relevant (R) and Not Relevant (NR) with score of 3, 2 and 1 for positive statements and 1, 2 and 3 for negative statements, respectively.

Relevance of the sub components

The responses of the judges were tabulated and analyzed to calculate Relevancy Percentage (RP), Relevancy Weightage (RW) and Mean Relevancy Score (MRS) were worked out for all the 96 sub items individually, using the formulae given by Edward (1969) [2] .

Item analysis for final selection of statements

It is important step for final selection of the items made on the basis of items analysis. For computation of t value, the 50 items selected through judge's opinion were administered to a random sample of 40 respondents from non-sample area. For analysis, upper and lower 25 per cent of the respondents score i.e., 10 respondents with the highest total score and 10 respondents with the lowest total score were selected. These two groups were used as criterion groups to evaluate the individual statements. The critical ratio that is the "t" value (a measure of the extent to which a given statement differentiates between the high and low groups of respondents for each statement) was calculated by using the formula given by Edwards (1957) [1] .

Where

Reliability of the adaptive capacity scale:

It is degree to which the measure of a construct is consistent or dependable. A scale is said to be reliable when it consistently produces the same results when applied to measure the same phenomenon from time to time. For this study, test-retest method of reliability was used. The coefficient of reliability was calculated by using following the Rulon's formula (Guliford, 1954) [3] .

Where;  r = reliability coefficient  n = number of respondents  x = scores of test  y = scores of retest  ∑x = summation of x (scores of test)  ∑y = summation of y (scores of retest)  ∑x 2 = summation of squares of x (scores of test)  ∑y 2 = summation of squares of y (scores of test)

Validity of the adaptive capacity scale:

It is extent of which a measure adequately represents the underlying construct that is supposed to measure. The validity of the adaptive capacity scale is the accuracy which an instrument what is intended to measure. The validity of this developed scale was measure by content validity method.

Administering the developed scale

The respondents were asked to express their responses with regard to each of the 46 items included in the scale. The responses were collected on three continuum namely "agree", "undecided" and "disagree" with a score of assigned 3, 2 and 1 respectively for positive statements and 1, 2 and 3 for negative statements, respectively. The scale would measure the adaptive capacity of mango growers with respect to climate change. Based on the scores obtained, the respondents will be categorized into, low, medium and high adaptive capacity using mean and standard deviation.

Results and discussion Identification and selection of various sub components of adaptive capacity

Based on extensive literature research reports; following eight sub components of adaptive capacity like, economic resources, information resources, technology resources, social capital, knowledge, human resources, institutional resources and management approach were identified and selected on the basis of review of literature and consultation with extension scientists. These sub components are operationalized define given in Table 1.

Development of a scale to measure adaptive capacity of the mango growers Item collection:

The first step in the scale construction was to collect and select a set of statements covering the entire universe of content. That is specifying adaptive capacity of the mango growers with respect to climate change. As such large numbers of statements covering the entire universe of content were collected from available literature and through discussion with the experts in the field of agricultural extension education, agricultural economics and fruit science horticulturalist. As such battery of 120 statements the adaptive capacity of mango growers was drafted under the eight components.

Editing of statements

The statements collected were carefully examined in the light of the fourteen criterion suggested by Edwards (1957) [1] for screening the items. Out of 120 statements 96 statements were which satisfied the criteria were selected.

Item selection

These statements were then subjected to scrutiny by an expert panel of judges to determine the relevancy. For this purpose, the statements were given to a panel of 110 judges. They were requested to indicate appropriateness (relevancy) of each statement for inclusion in the scale. The responses were obtained on three point continuum viz., Most Relevant www.extensionjournal.com (MR), Relevant (R) and Not Relevant (NR) with score of 3, 2 and 1 for positive statements and 1, 2 and 3 for negative statements, respectively.

Relevancy test

From the data so gathered, Relevancy Percentage (RP), Relevancy Weightage (RW) and Mean Relevancy Score (MRS) were worked out for all the 96 sub items individually, using the formulae given by Edward (1969) [2] .

Using these three criteria, the items were screened for their relevancy. Accordingly, items having relevancy percentage of more than 66, relevancy weightage of more than 0.66 and mean relevancy score of more than 2 were considered for final selection. Thus, finally 50 statements were selected in the first stage. The details regarding sub components, number of items identified and retained for measuring adaptive capacity of the mango growers are given in Table 2 and Table 3.

Item analysis

Final selection of the items made on the basis of items analysis. For computation of t value, the 50 items selected through judge's opinion were administered to a random sample of 40 respondents from non-sample area. For analysis, upper and lower 25 per cent of the respondents score i.e., 10 respondents with the highest total score and 10 respondents with the lowest total score were selected. These two groups were used as criterion groups to evaluate the individual statements. The critical ratio that is the "t" value was calculated by using the formula given by Edwards (1957) [1] .

Selection of adaptive capacity statements for final scale

Critical ratio ("t"value) of each item was calculated for the final selection of items. Items were selected on the basis of 't' value equal to or, greater than 1.75 as this 't' value significantly differentiates between high and low groups of items. Accordingly, 46 statements were retained in the final www.extensionjournal.com scale for measuring the adaptive capacity of mango growers. The details regarding sub components, numbers of items identified and retained for measuring adaptive capacity of mango growers are given in Table 4 and Table 5.

Reliability of scale

Reliability is the degree to which the measure of a construct is consistent or dependable. A scale is said to be reliable when it consistently produces the same results when applied to measure the same phenomenon from time to time. For this study, test-retest method of reliability was used.

Test retest method

In this method, a single form of the test was administered twice on the same populations with a reasonable time gap and the results were compared. The adaptive capacity scale with 46 items administered to the 40 mango growers who were neither previously contacted nor had chance to come in the final sample. After period of 15 days, the same 40 mango growers were given the test. Two sets of scale score were thus obtained. Each of the two sets of statements was treated as a separate scale and these two sub-scales were correlated. The coefficient of reliability was calculated by using the Rulon's formula (Guliford, 1954), which came to 0.9367. Thus the scale developed was found highly reliable.

Validity of scale

It is referred to the extent of which a measure adequately represents the underlying construct that is supposed to measure. The validity of the developed scale was measure by content validity method.

Content validity

According to Kerlinger (1976) [5] , the content validity is representativeness of sampling adequacy, of the content, the substance, the matter and the topics of measuring instrument. It means the extent to which the items included in the test represent the total universe of the content. It was ensured while framing the items, which were collected from the available books, journals, referenced research papers, related research articles, relevant literature and through interviews with experts. The content validity of the scale was ensured by selecting the contents after discussion with specialists of extension and academicians of Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli. While selecting adaptive capacity of mango grower statements, due care was taken for obtaining a fair degree of content validity. The calculated "t" value being significant for all the finalized statements of the score indicated that the present scale satisfied the content validity.

Administering the developed scale

The respondents were asked to express their responses with regard to each of the 46 items included in the scale. The responses were collected on three continuum namely "agree", "undecided" and "disagree" with a score of assigned 3, 2 and 1 respectively for positive statements and 1, 2 and 3 for negative statements, respectively. (Table 7) Agricultural extension services play an important role in getting maximum yield. 4.5.* Mango growers should sell their produce through the middlemen only. 4.6.

Farmers' field school helps in knowing about the climate change. 5) Knowledge 5.1.

I know about value addition and the importance of this process. 5.2.

I try to minimize the pollution while carrying cultivation practices. 5.3.

Effective reuse of available resources is essential. 5.4.

If chemical pesticides are used properly, they are not harmful. 5.5.

I have capacity to manage the effect of the climate change on mango cultivation at the local level.

5.6.*

The impact of climate change on agriculture is the only reason for migration from rural areas to cities.

6)

I get family support to bear the agricultural losses due to climate change.

6.2.

Age old mango growers are wise to use new technologies instead of just relying on their own experience. 6.3.

I take guidance from extension workers at the right time. 6.4.

I think crop rotation should be done according to climate change. 6.5.* I think only mango farming is the best business for me than any other business.

7)

Institutional resources 7.1.

It is necessary to solve the problems caused by climate change through an organization/association formed by mango growers. 7.2.

It is important to accept and follow the advice given by Grameen Krishi Mausam Seva. 7.3.

Taking information from relevant centers is essential for successful marketing of mangoes. It would be advisable to get information from experienced mango growers rather than weather observatory unit.

8)

Mango growers must adopt intercropping to increase their income. 8.2.

I personally supervise all the work in my mango orchard. 8.3.* As flower and fruit drop are natural, no chemical methods need to be followed. 8.4.

Adoption of improved technology is necessary for reduction of soil erosion, evaporation etc. 8.5.

Orchards with undulating topography are difficult to manage.

Conclusion

The scale to measure the adaptive capacity was found to be highly reliable and valid. The scale consist of eight sub components namely, economic resources, information resources, technology resources, social capital, knowledge, human resources, institutional resources and management approach. The adaptive capacity scale consists of total 46 sub items. The developed scale administered on a threepoint continuum ranging from 'agree', 'undecided' and 'disagree' to measure the adaptive capacity of the mango growers with respect to climate change. To modified and improve this scale usability and applicability, it is suggested to validate it in different demographics.

References

1. Edwards AL. Techniques of attitude scale construction. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.; 1957.
2. Edwards AL. Techniques of attitude scale construction. Bombay: Vakils, Feffer and Simons Pvt. Ltd.; 1969.
3. Guilford JP. Psychometric methods. Bombay: Tata McGraw-Hill Publication Co. Ltd.; 1954. p. 55-60.
4. Dapoli, Maharashtra, India: Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth; 2021.
5. Kerlinger FN. Foundations of behavioral research. New Delhi: Surjeet Publications; 1976. p. 198-204.