| As the important production and livelihood material of mankind,water resources play a vital role to social and economic development,even pose a threat to the national security.In particular,the study on agricultural water utilization efficiency in arid and semi-arid areas is closely associate with the "One belt,one road" national project,which also affects the security of the overall implementation.This research focused on the demands of agricultural water resources in Heihe River Basin,evaluating the relationship between the elements of agricultural water resources and land resources,analyzing the features of spatial differences,and distinguishing the agricultural water utilization at different scales,types and regions.The emphasis of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of major indicators at multi-level that affecting the agricultural water utilization efficiency,and further put forward policy suggestions for adjusting agricultural planting structure and agricultural water management system,as well as providing scientific and technological support for the sustainable development of agricultural water resources in arid and semi-arid areas.Firstly,the current management policies concerned about water demands needs to be gathered for building the water efficiency evaluation system.This paper took Heihe River Basin in Gansu province as the key study area,and mainly intended to solve the following three questions.The first one is that,what are the impacts of water resources on agricultural economic development?Does it promote or obstruct that development?The second question is that,what is the agricultural water utilization efficiency at different scales,including county level and household level?And does the water efficiency at various scales show the same features?The final question is that,which kinds of indicators affect the agricultural water utilization efficiency?How much and what is the direction of the impacts on the water efficiency?Our research based on the precious questions,raising the policy suggestions and adaptable measures of improving agricultural water utilization efficiency in arid and semi-arid areas.Secondly,the critical threshold of socio-economic development in the study area should be regulated after identifying the requirements clearly.During the research on figuring out approaches to solve the three questions,this paper coupled data of macro and micro level orderly to comprehensive evaluate the indicators that affecting water resources efficiency at regional and household scales,based on the regional data at macro level and the random sampling survey data at micro level gathered by Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy,Chinese Academy of Sciences.To be more specific,the regional data at macro level includes 6 counties and 2 districts in Heihe agricultural region(Ganzhou and Suzhou districts,Linze,Gaotai,Jinta,Shandan,Minle and Sunan yugur autonomous counties);and at micro level,we used the household survey data to build the model at multi-level for evaluating the impacts of water resources efficiency,and conduct the parameterized descriptive analysis,with the help of quantitative econometric analysis to identify the three research questions.Thirdly,figuring out the problems while development,and the priority in adapting measures for improving agricultural water resources efficiency in arid and semi-arid areas.The major conclusions of this paper as bellows:First of all,from the perspective of the motivation of agricultural land and water resources to agricultural development,the water resources and land resources in Heihe River Basin play different roles in the regional agricultural economic development with taking the spatial heterogeneity into consideration.In addition,from the level of the overall effect of integrated land and water resources,the connection between the direction,degree of overall motivation and the local agricultural production,planting structures.Then,the heterogeneity features of regional agricultural water resources efficiency are significant,in which counties with relatively high efficiency of agricultural water resources are Minle and Linze counties,and conversely,the efficiency in Jinta and Sunan Yugur autonomous counties is less efficient,mainly consistent with the development of local industry.Besides,the research results also indicate that,the water resources efficiency in districts/counties is proved to be alike gradually over time.Then,in the view of the indicators that affecting water resources efficiency,five aspects are covered into the selection of indicators,including agricultural investment,economic growth,industry structure adjustment,natural disasters and agricultural production,planting structure adjustment.The research results show that,improving agricultural technical investment has a positive impact on rising agricultural water efficiency with the growing rate of fixed assets investment reaching 10%,and the agricultural water efficiency also rising 0.2%;adjusting the agricultural planting land area scientifically,especially the wheat planting acreage,is also helpful for improving agricultural water efficiency with every 1%wheat planting acreage rising,0.23%agricultural water efficiency would increase as well.Finally,the agricultural water efficiency at household level is estimated between 0.5-0.7%,which means there are over 30%improving room for the agricultural water efficiency at household level.If only estimated from efficiency level,the optimal planting land area of individual farmers is 50 acres approximately.Fourth,this paper concluded the evolution trend of agricultural water resources efficiency in arid and semi-arid systems,and raised the suggestions for sustainable development of regional agricultural water resources efficiency.The policy suggestions are explained as follows:building a dynamic water trading mechanism,achieving the upgrading of irrigation technology,completing subsidy system and legal protection system,with setting the efficiency use of water resources as the ultimate target.establishing a market-oriented water pricing mechanism and management,highlighting the advantage of local coordination,achieving the management system innovation for irrigation scale,optimizing the structure of crops.The suggestions in this paper would provide a scientific and technological support for the sustainable agricultural water utilization in arid and semi-arid areas. |
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