Regional applicability evaluation of technical integration for straw feed utilization

Abstract: Straw is an important biomass resource. The comprehensive utilization of straw not only acts to protect the environment of producing areas and to increase farmers' income, but also is an important guarantee of agricultural sustainable development. In order to prompt straw feed utilization, this paper investigates the method of regional applicability evaluation for the technical integration of straw feed utilization. Technical classification and technical integration are studied based on the technical processes, such as the collection, storage, transportation, and feed utilization of straw. The technical classification of feed utilization of straw lays a foundation on the different corn stalk types, which includes the green corn stalk, dried corn stalk, rich stalk, and wheat stalk. It is divided in three ways, silage, ammonization, and yellow corn silage. The technical classification of collection, storage, and transportation lays a foundation on two types of stalk collection, which includes the harvest-shred and collection. Then, with an appropriate organization form, ten types of the technical integration of straw feed utilization were summarized. Furthermore, an evaluation index system was established, and the weighting factors of an evaluation index were calculated by a combination weighting method. The evaluation indices were formed by functional indices, economical beneficial indices, social and environment beneficial indices, and applicability indices. The functional indices were formed by the maturity of engineering and the transformation effective of straw feed utilization. The economical beneficial indices were formed by the total investment of crop straw per ton, and the reduced cost of feed per unit investment. The social and environment beneficial indices were formed by the amount of straw feed utilization per unit of investment, the increased number of jobs per unit of investment and per ton, and the degree of secondary pollution per ton. The applicability indices were formed by the coordination degree of regional crop straw variety and density, the coordination degree of regional livestock farms' type, each farm's scale, and the coordination degree of organization form. Based on the entropy and G1 method, the combination weights method was used to obtain the weights of evaluation index. Finally, taking Yuhong district, Shenyang province as an example, the regional applicability of technical integration for the straw feed utilization was evaluated. The result showed that the highest score is the first model, which uses the silage harvester to harvest and shred green corn stalk, and uses the trench silo to ensile stalk. The technical integration that is optimized and suitable for local development is chosen, based on a development scheme of animal husbandry, creating recommendations to improve the current situation.