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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1459688

Evaluation of the sustainable development level of grain family farms in main grain-producing areas based on multi-functional agriculture: A case study of Hunan Province in China

Provisionally accepted
Wei Duan Wei Duan 1,2Yuehong Pan Yuehong Pan 3*
  • 1 College of Economics, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
  • 2 Hunan College of Information, Changsha, Anhui Province, China
  • 3 Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haidian, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Grain family farms play an important role in promoting agricultural modernization and rural revitalization in China. Taking Hunan Province as an example, based on survey data from 400 grain family farms and agricultural multi-function theory, 24 specific indicators were selected from three dimensions-economic benefits, social benefits and ecological benefits-to construct an evaluation system for the sustainable development level of grain family farms. The entropy weight TOPSIS method was used to measure the sustainable development level of grain family farms in Hunan Province, and the obstacle factor diagnosis model was used to explore the main obstacle factors affecting the sustainable development of grain family farms. The results showed that (1) the sustainable development level of grain family farms in Hunan Province was classified as good overall with respect to the classification criteria of existing relevant studies, but there were comparative differences in each dimension among the four regions (central Hunan, northern Hunan, southern Hunan and western Hunan) of Hunan Province. (2) According to the diagnosis and analysis results of the obstacle degree, the top six obstacle factors affecting the sustainable development level of grain family farms in Hunan Province were the effective use of water resources, soil protection and improvement efforts, the number of agricultural ecological culture inheritance activities, carbon emission management, the number of jobs provided for farmers, and adaptability to external environmental changes. Relevant policies and systems should be formulated based on local conditions to enhance the integrity and synergy of the development of grain family farms in Hunan Province and to enhance the sustainable development ability of grain family farms in Hunan Province.

    Keywords: Multi-functional agriculture, Grain family farm, sustainable development, Evaluation system, China

    Received: 04 Jul 2024; Accepted: 27 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Duan and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yuehong Pan, Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Haidian, 100081, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.