Evaluation Method Of Characteristic Agriculture In China

In this paper, the concept of Characteristic Agriculture is defined as follows. Theoretically characteristic agriculture is an agriculture system within a specific economic region. It has the basic features of strong market competition, obvious economic benefits, large production scale and high industrial specialization. The development of characteristic resource in a region is based on the advantages of local resources - both naturally and anthropogenicaly. Therefore, its target is to explore the advantageous local resources to produce high quality agricultural goods to meet the demands of markets and society for the return of high profits. Through this approach, characteristic agriculture gains its survival and development in the market economy of China.Specifically, the study is to develop an assessment method for the agriculture. Since characteristic agriculture is based on the advantageous local resources for its development, the establishment of the assessment method has to consider the relative advantages of natural resources, economic conditions and social institutions, geographical location, ecological suitability and environmental quality. With this consideration, an assessment method involving three steps has been proposed in the study. The first step is to analyze resource advantages. This analysis is oriented to not only natural resources but also human resources and location impact. Information about current status in relative resource advantages of the region under study can be obtained from this analysis. The second step is to evaluate the relative advantages of major agricultural products within the region under study. This includes the analysis of comparative advantages in yields (YC A), farming scale (SCA), net value (NCA) and comprehensive aspects (RCCA). The third step is to combine the results of the above two steps to determine the leading agricultural products of the region in specialization, and to analyze the ecological suitability for the products, which will result in a reasonable fanning allocation for the characteristic agriculture development in the region.Provinces in West China have been selected as the region of case study for application of the proposed method, with aim at analysis of the resource advantages and mainagricultural production advantages in these provinces. Specifically, the farming advantages of Yunnan tea as a characteristic agro-good in Southwest China has been elaborately examined and the ecological suitability of Xinjiang cotton as a characteristic agro-product in Northwest China systematically assessed, which result in our understanding of the reasonable farming allocation of the agricultural systems in their specific regional regime. Accordingly, several suggestions and policy formulations have been proposed to promote the sustainable development of the two characteristic agricultural systems.