No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

There has been little scholarly research on Chinese agriculture's geographic pattern of agglomeration and its evolutionary mechanisms, which are essential to sustainable development in China. By calculating the barycenter coordinates, the Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation and specialization indices for 11 crops during 1981-2012, we analyze the evolutionary pattern and mechanisms of agricultural agglomeration. We argue that the degree of spatial concentration of Chinese planting has been gradually increasing and that regional specialization and diversification have progressively been strengthened. Furthermore, Chinese crop production is moving from the eastern provinces to the central and western provinces. This is in contrast to Chinese manufacturing growth which has continued to be concentrated in the coastal and southeastern regions. In Northeast China, the Sanjiang and Songnen plains have become agricultural clustering regions, and the earlier domination of aquaculture and rice production in Southeast China has gradually decreased. In summary, this paper provides a political economy framework for understanding the regionalization of Chinese agriculture, focusing on the interaction among the objectives, decision-making behavior, path dependencies and spatial effects.

The evolution of networks in rural industrial clusters, in particular in the context of China has been paid more attention to in the world. Applying the theory and techniques of social network analysis (SNA), this study is with particular regard to the business network relationships and their evolutionary dynamics of steel measuring tape manufacturing clustered in Nanzhuang Village, Yucheng County of Henan Province, China, which is important for better understanding the industrial and regional development in less developed rural areas. From data collected by comprehensive questionnaire survey in 2002 and mass interviews with 60 enterprises and assembling families and several government authorities in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008, four types of networks are identified: spin-off, consulting, communication and cooperative. The characteristic of these networks is outlined in detail. Compared with the high-tech clusters of typical developed areas, the networks that have evolved in traditional manufacturing clusters are more affected by emotive linkages. The cluster networks are shown to exhibit a polycentric hierarchical structure. The family relationships are the dominate spin-off channels of enterprises, while the supply and demand relationships and the mobility of the skilled workers are also important paths of network learning, and the cooperation relationships are comparatively stable. Besides the root enterprises, the middle-sized enterprises are comparatively more active than small-sized enterprises, and the intermediary agencies and the service institutions act as bridges of the inter-enterprises cooperation. By analysis of the structure of networks and the interactions between the networks, the four stages of network evolution are also identified. The four stages are dominated by the family networks, the internal division production networks, the local innovation networks and the global supply networks respectively, and they play different roles in cluster development.

No abstract

Agricultural clusters play a powerful role in promoting the agricultural transformation and rejuvenation of rural areas. However, no in-depth exploration has been made on how agricultural clusters form and evolve, especially in the context of China’s long-term small-scale rural economy. The purpose of this article is to reveal the formation process and evolution mechanism of agricultural clusters by case study research. With the knowledge flow as the starting point, this article takes the Vegetable Cluster in Shouguang City of Shandong Province, China as an example to construct a theoretical framework in the three dimensions of points (spin-offs of enterprises or farmers), lines (network-spillovers of various innovation) and planes (the formation of new regional industry spaces) and put forward theoretical hypotheses. It is shown that: (1) The local spin-off of seed farmers is the main path in the transformation of traditional farmers into enterprises. (2) The network-spillover and adoption of innovative knowledge promote the derivation of specialized farmers or enterprises and realize regional agricultural specialization and spatial agglomeration. (3) The formation of the agricultural cluster resulted from the joint effects of spin-off derived from the entrepreneurial spirit of the farmers, network-spillover of various agricultural innovations and spatial integration of the agricultural landscape. The formation of local agricultural innovation systems marks the maturity of an agricultural cluster. This article contribute to the field by studying one source of Alfred Marshall’s knowledge of external economy from the perspective of spin-offs and innovative spillovers, analyzing the agricultural increasing returns to scale neglected by Krugman, and exploring the micro mechanism of farmers’ enterprise-oriented evolution and the formation of agricultural clusters in underdeveloped rural areas. The research results are of profound referential significance for the cultivation of agricultural clusters in developing countries.

The measurement of eco-efficiency is an important tool to evaluate the level of urban sustainable development. Therefore; improving urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River ensures the implementation of ecological protection and high-quality development strategies in the Yellow River Basin. In this study; the dynamic changes of urban eco-efficiency and spatiotemporal differences in the lower reaches of the Yellow River were investigated using the Super-SBM (Super-Slack measure model) model with undesirable outputs and standard deviation ellipse. The STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression Population; Affluence and Technology) model was introduced to analyze the factors affecting the change in urban eco-efficiency. The results showed that the overall urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River has not reached the optimal level. The overall eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River in Shandong Province was higher than that in Henan Province but the gap is narrowing. The spatial differentiation of urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River showed the following trends: “blooming in the middle and reverse development at both ends” in the high-value area and gradual decrease in the low-value area. From 2007 to 2018; a direction was notable with respect to the development of urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River; with the centripetal force weakening. Although the mean center of urban eco-efficiency located in Shandong Province; it notably shifted to the west during the study period. In terms of driving factors; affluence and technological progress play positive roles in driving eco-efficiency; while investment intensity; industrial structure; and foreign investment intensity hindered the optimization and improvement of urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. The results of this study show that urban eco-efficiency in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is improving; but the regional coordination is poor. The main methods promoting the sustainable development in the study area include changing the mode of extensive investments and the introduction of foreign capital; which improve the energy efficiency and promote faster and better economic development