Sustainable Agriculture Evaluation for Red Soil Hill Region of Southeast China  

作　　者：ZHAOQi-Guo XUMeng-Jie 

机构地区：[1]InstituteofSoilScience,ChineseAcademyofSciences,71EastBeijingRd.,Nanjing210008（China） [2]DepartmentofPublicManagement,NanjingAgriculturalUniversity,1WeigangRd.,Nanjing210093（China）

出　　处：《Pedosphere》2004年第3期313-321,共9页土壤圈（英文版）

基　　金：the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 49631010).

摘　　要：Agricultural sustainability for economic development is important and a complex issue throughout the world; however,it is difficult to synthetically evaluate its use in the policy making process. The objective of this study was to evaluate sustainable agriculture in the red soil hill region of Southeast China through a newly proposed method combining four separate sub-systems: regional population (P), resource (R), environmental (E), and socio-economic (S). This new index system was proposed to appraise synthetically the agricultural sustainability of the red soil hill region from 1988 to 1996 with a two-step method assessing: a) the agricultural sustainability in each province independently and b) the relative sustainability of each province to the whole region. The first step only provided a development trend for each province based on its original situation, while the second step provided additional information on the comparative status of each province in agricultural development to the region as a whole. Higher index scores were found for the economy and resource categories denoting improvement. However, lower scores in the environment category indicated the improvement was achieved at the cost of deteriorating ecological surroundings due to an increasing population that demanded more from the agro-ecosystem and put heavier pressures on it. Results also showed that water and soil losses in this region were the major obstacles encountered in sustainable agriculture development. The assessment results were verified when compared with results from another method. This suggested that the new assessment system was reliable and credible in evaluating agricultural sustainability on a regional scale.Agricultural sustainability for economic development is important and acomplex issue throughout the world; however, it is difficult to synthetically evaluate its use inthe policy making process. The objective of this study was to evaluate sustainable agriculture inthe red soil hill region of Southeast China through a newly proposed method combining four separatesub-systems: regional population (P), resource (R), environmental (E), and socio-economic (S). Thisnew index system was proposed to appraise synthetically the agricultural sustainability of the redsoil hill region from 1988 to 1996 with a two-step method assessing: a) the agriculturalsustainability in each province independently and b) the relative sustainability of each province tothe whole region. The first step only provided a development trend for each province based on itsoriginal situation, while the second step provided additional information on the comparative statusof each province in agricultural development to the region as a whole. Higher index scores werefound for the economy and resource categories denoting improvement. However, lower scores in theenvironment category indicated the improvement was achieved at the cost of deteriorating ecologicalsurroundings due to an increasing population that demanded more from the agro-ecosystem and putheavier pressures on it. Results also showed that water and soil losses in this region were themajor obstacles encountered in sustainable agriculture development. The assessment results wereverified when compared with results from another method. This suggested that the new assessmentsystem was reliable and credible in evaluating agricultural sustainability on a regional scale.

关 键 词：AGRICULTURE ASSESSMENT red soil hill region southeast china SUSTAINABILITY 

分 类 号：S156.6[农业科学—土壤学] P642.132[农业科学—农业基础科学]