Emergy analysis of Chinese agriculture

Abstract

This study presents an ecological analysis of Chinese agriculture for the period from 1980 to 2000, on the basis of Odum's well-known concept of emergy in ecological economy. Emergy analysis methods are explained, illustrated and used to diagram the agro-ecosystem, to evaluate environmental and economic inputs and harvested yield, and to assess the sustainability of the Chinese agriculture as a whole. Detailed structure of the input/output and system indicators are examined from a historical perspective for the contemporary Chinese agriculture in the latest two decades after China's Reform and Open in the late 1980s. Temporal variation of indices such as increasing environmental load ratio (ELR), decreasing emergy self-support ratio (ESR) and decreasing emergy yield ratio (EYR) illustrate a weakening sustainability of the Chinese agro-ecosystem characteristic of profound transition from a self-supporting tradition to a modern industry based on non-renewable resource consumption.