Measuring convergence in the sugarcane industry in China's Guangxi province.

Fangfang Zeng,Zhihan Lv

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244617

Abstract

Using the agricultural industry convergence framework, we analyzed the main sugarcane producing areas in China’s Guangxi province from 2010 to 2017. We selected the key elements on sugarcane industry convergence and on the benefit derived from industry convergence and development. We selected six secondary indexes and 18 tertiary indexes and used them to construct an overarching index system for measuring the convergence degree of sugarcane in the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. We calculated the index’s system weight using the AHP and entropy method, and then the integrated development indicator of the sugarcane industry. Finally, we analyzed the convergence the development stage, achievements, and benefits of the sugarcane industry, as well as the shortage of convergence development. Our findings can provide guidance for the future development of the sugarcane industry in China from the perspective of industry convergence.

Highlights

In the past decade, agricultural industry convergence has developed rapidly around the world
Existing studies have mainly focused on areas such as connotation, value, mode and path of convergence [1,2,3,4,5,6]
In the formula, Yj represents the value of the standardized index, Xj represents the value of the index before standardization, maxXj represents the maximum value in each year for this index, and minXj represents the minimum value in each year for this index

Summary

Introduction

Agricultural industry convergence has developed rapidly around the world. Agricultural growth has been achieved by promoting the integrated development among the secondary and tertiary agricultural sectors. Xiang-mei Li [7] and Ya-fei Ma [8] evaluated the convergence development of agricultural industry in Beijing, Gansu and other places in China. The Guangxi province is the most important sugarcane producing area in China. Owe to the high yield and high sugar content bases construction, sugarcane production capacity grew rapidly. We analyzed data of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industry sectors in Guangxi from 2010 to 2017. We made suggestions on how to promote the process of industry convergence in China

Methods

Results

Conclusion