Evaluation of China’s Circular Agriculture Performance and Analysis of the Driving Factors

Abstract

Along with industry upgrading and urbanization, the agricultural industry in China has been experiencing a stage of rapid development, on the bright side. On the other side, ecological environment deterioration and resource scarcity have become prevalent. Called by the current situation, circular agriculture arises as a direction for the industry to achieve sustainable development. This study develops an evaluation indicator system for circular agriculture using an entropy method, and evaluates factors that could drive the Chinese agricultural industry to achieve better performance. We employ the method using provincial data collected from the province of Henan, in which around 10% of the total grain in China is produced. It was found that agricultural technology and water resources per capita are positively related to circular performance in agriculture. In contrast, urbanization and arable land per capita are negatively related to circular performance. This article provides support to the government in policy-making related to the improvement of circular agricultural performance.