Emergy-based Evaluation Of The Resources And Environmental Benefits Of Agricultural Investment Projects

As a large agricultural country, China’s agriculture progress has direct effect on its national economy growth. While, the agriculture of China can not flourish without the development of its agricultural enterprises as well as the investment programs of agriculture. Agricultural investment programs, as an important support for China’s agricultural development, have been attached high importance by our country and the whole society. More and more programs of this sort have been put into the process of production and marketing. Compared with other programs, agricultural investment programs have a closer relation with nature and exchange more resource with ecological environment. Therefore, the resource-environment benefit is the most outstanding feature of the agricultural investment programs. However, the existing feasibility researches of these programs are evaluated mainly by financial indicator which could not reflect their influences on ecological environment and natural resources. To adhere to the sustainable development policy and the scientific outlook on development, evaluation based on resource-environment benefits should become an indispensable part of the feasibility researches on agricultural investment programs. Hence, theories and methods based on quantitative analysis of the resource-environment benefits should necessarily be perfected to help make scientific decisions for agricultural investment programs.This thesis is guided by the evaluation theory of resource-environment benefits and the emergy theory. The agricultural investment program is chosen as the specific research subject. First, the present-day feasibility researches on China’s agricultural investment programs are analysed in the thesis, through which the deficiency of evaluation based on the resource-environment benefits and on the value of ecological environment resources is found out. Second, various research methods of the evaluation based on the resource-environment benefits of agricultural investment projects are analysed with the help of considerable relevant literature both internal and external. Finally, the emergy theory is chosen to analyse and evaluate the resource-environment benefits, and a specific evaluation indicator system is established and tested in a real project. Meanwhile, given the resource-environment value, the real feasibility of the agricultural investment programs is appraised, with some real cases, through the method of emdollar value flows in this thesis. At last, some policy suggestions are proposed according to the results of the evaluation. This thesis includes five chapters and the specific contents are as follows:Chapter one, introduction. In this chapter, the background, significance and purpose of the thesis are stated, and the relevant researches, both domestic and abroad, are dynamically reviewed. According to all these, the methods, technical line and basic structure of this thesis are decided.Chapter two, the theoretical basis of the evaluation of the agricultural investment projects’ resource-environment benefits. In this chapter, the definition, classification, features and functions of the agricultural investment projects are talked about in detail. Then, the definition, characteristics and significance of the resource-environment benefits are analysed. Theories relative to the evaluation of the resource-environment benefits of the agricultural investment projects are emphasized in this part.Chapter three, evaluation based on emergy of the agricultural investment projects’ resource-environment benefits. In this chapter, seven indicators that can reflect the resource-environment benefits are selected in view of the features of the agricultural investment projects. A set of evaluation indicator system is built, and is used to evaluate some real case materials as well as to analyse the results of these cases.Chapter four, emdollar value flows analysis of the agricultural investment projects. In fully consideration of the resource-environment value, the real value of the agricultural investment projects is analysed and evaluated through emdollar value conception. A statement of emdollar value flows, similar with the statement of cash flows, is established with cases to evaluate the real feasibility of the project.Chapter five, proposals for the evaluation of the agricultural investment projects’ resource-environment benefits. According to the results of the previous analysis, several suggestions are proposed. It is strongly suggested that the evaluation of the resource-environment benefits should be brought into the decision-making process by the government. Besides, the government should increase the weight of the resource-environment objective decision of the agricultural investment projects, and standardize the evaluation methods of the agricultural investment projects’ resource-environment benefits. In the meantime, the deficiency of this research is summarized at the end of the thesis to direct further researches.