Research On Appraisal And Measures Of Circular Agriculture Development Level In Anhui Province

As the most important basic industry of the national economy, agriculture is a weakindustry with low economic benefits which is affected by environment and resourcesconstraints. Circular agriculture is a new model of agricultural development with theapplication of the circular economy concept in China for the past few years, it is a modernagricultural development approach basing on the principles with respect to reducing,reusing, recycling, rethinking and refixing as well as relying on scientific and technologicalmeans, policy supports and market mechanisms to achieve the unity of benefits oneconomy, society and ecology. The development of circular agriculture can not onlyenhance the comprehensive productive capacity and the quality of agricultural products butalso good for promoting the modernization and the sustainable development ability of theagriculture in our province.Anhui Province is a major agricultural province with agricultural GDP ranked tenthnationwide and has been committed to the research and exploration on the pattern ofcircular agriculture development which starts earlier across the country in recent years.However, in spite of its more superior natural location, good ecological condition andstrong scientific and technical capability, meanwhile, the province has to face with multiplepressure such as limited resources, deteriorating environment, low rate of agriculturalwaste utilization, insufficient adhibition of agrotechnical popularization and practice and soon. Therefore, Anhui Province has to accelerate the propelling of the circular agriculturedevelopment to enhance the capacity of agricultural sustainable development.This paper utilizes the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and weighting functionmethod to construct the evaluation system of target layer (A), control layer (B) and specificindicator layer (C). Layer (A) is the developmental level of circular agriculture in Anhui.Layer (B) including5indicators of socio-economic development status (B1), resourcereduction investment (B2), recycling of resources (B3), environmental resources security(B4) and population system (B5). According to the actual situation and data in AnhuiProvince, layer (C) selects21indicators to evaluate the developmental level of circularagriculture in Anhui province from2001to2011synthetically. In the horizontalcomparison,6provinces in central China as well as Shandong Province, Zhejiang Provinceand Jiangsu Province are compared to investigate the developmental level of circularagriculture in central Anhui. And then basing on the developmental level of circularagriculture in2011, analyses about obstacle factors which limit the development of circular agriculture and obstacle degree are made. The main conclusions are as follows:(1) Longitudinal analyses drawn: the level of circular agriculture development in Anhuihad an overall upward trend in2001-2011. Socio-economic development status (B1) andrecycling of resources (B3) showed an obvious uptrend, while resource reductioninvestment (B2), environmental resources security (B4) and population system (B5)indicated a horizontal or downward trend. Horizontal comparisons drawn: The level ofcircular agriculture development in Anhui is still in the middle level. Relevant datarevealed that the development level of agricultural economy had fallen behind a bit andresources recycling utilization was somewhat lower in our province. Comparing with otherprovinces, there is no obvious advantages in the positive effect of other factors.(2) The analysis on the obstruction degree of circular agriculture development in Anhuiprovince in2011manifested that factors restricting the development of circular agriculturewere superabundant investment of agricultural materials (fertilizers, pesticides), decreaseof arable land, overmuch energy used in agriculture and reduction of the total waterresources.(3) Based on the above analysis, several suggestions were put forward aiming at theproblems of circular agriculture development in Anhui province. First of all, reinforcingthe formation of the circular agriculture concept and guiding farmers to participate in thedevelopment. The second, improving circular agriculture technology bracing systemcontaining energy saving technology, reusing and recycling technology, informationtechnology and agricultural production technology to boost the circular agriculturedevelopment. The third, building the security system of circular agriculture including law,policy, finance and other aspects to ensure the long-term development of the circularagriculture.