Coupling between the Grain for Green Program and a household level-based agricultural eco-economic system in Ansai, Shaanxi Province of China

Abstract

The implementation of the Grain for Green Program (GGP) has changed the development track of the agricultural eco-economic system in China. In response to the results of a lag study that investigated the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system in a loess hilly region, we used a structural equation model to analyze the survey data from 494 households in Ansai, a district of Yan'an City in Shaanxi Province of China in 2015. The model clarified the direction and intensity of the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system. The coupling benefits were derived through linkages between the program and various chains in the agricultural eco-economic system. The GGP, the agroecosystem of Ansai and their potential coupling effects were in a state of general coordination. The agroecosystem directly affected the coupling effect, with the standardized path coefficient of 0.87, indicating that the agroecosystem in Ansai at this stage provided basic material support for the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system. The direct path coefficient of agroeconomic system impacted on the coupling effect was -0.76, indicating that partial contradictions occurred between the agroeconomic system and the coupling effect. Therefore, although the current agroecosystem in Ansai should be provided sufficient agroecological resources for the benign coupling between the program and the agricultural eco-economic system, agricultural development failed to effectively transform agroecological resources into agricultural economic advantages in this region, which resulted in a relative lag in the development of the agricultural economic system. Thus, the coupling between the GGP and the agricultural eco-economic system was poor. To improve the coupling and the sustainable development of the agricultural eco-economic system in cropland retirement areas, the industrial structure needs to be diversified, the agricultural resources (including agroecological resources, agricultural economic resources and agricultural social resources) need to be rationally allocated, and the chain structure of the agricultural eco-economic system needs to be continuously improved.

Dynamics of the eco-environmental quality in response to land use changes in rapidly urbanizing areas: A case study of Wuhan, China from 2000 to 2018

“…In this process, the natural landscape pattern dominated by vegetation and soil gradually replaces the urban landscape pattern dominated by reinforced concrete and cement ground. This will result in the change of the nature of the underlying surface of the land (such as surface reflectance and vegetation coverage), then lead to the change of regional temperature, humidity and precipitation, and finally, impact on regional climate (Li and Wang, 2008). In addition, the increase of man-made landscapes such as artificial structures and buildings will result in the fragmentation of natural landscapes and biological habitats, which will greatly disturb and destroy the maintenance of natural communities and resulting in a serious threat to biodiversity (Venter et al, 2016).…”

“…Forestland plays an important role in maintaining ecological security and its size is closely related to the quality of regional eco-environment (Manuschevich et al, 2019). However, if it is occupied by construction land, its original ecological service function will be greatly weakened (Li and Wang, 2008;Wu et al, 2019). With the development of urbanization, plenty of farmland has been converted to construction land (Liu et al, 2010), which not only disturbed the functions of the original farmland ecosystem, but also resulted in the increase of pollution emission and the emergence of heat island effect (Narducci et al, 2019).…”

An Empirical Study on the Growth of Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity in the Huanghuai River Economic Zone by Big Data Computing

“…In his 1957 book "Technical Progress and the Aggregate Production Function," Solow called the residual value of the rate of technical progress after deducting the rate of growth of each input factor from the rate of growth of total factor productivity. According to Cai Fang of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the total factor productivity is the fraction of productivity that exceeds a given level of production efficiency, given that all factor inputs remain constant [14].…”

Quantifying the impact of the Grain-for-Green Program on ecosystem service scarcity value in Qinghai, China

“…The implementation of the GGP can significantly change the land use dynamics, and land use and land cover (LULC) determines the maintenance of ES 30 . Hence, besides ecological and natural benefits 31 , 32 , research by Cao et al showed that the GGP increased net benefits for citizens of China, and this suggests that such large-scale ecological projects are potentially profitable 33 , the implementation of the GGP can also create monetary and social benefits 34 , 35 . Thus, it is necessary to explore the impact of the GGP on ES in Qinghai.…”