GIS based study on grain productivity and resources utilization efficiency at county level in China

Based on the situation of food security and sustainable agricultural development, this research attempts to study systematically issues of potential grain productivity and resources’ utilization efficiency in China(except Taiwan province) by applying theoretical models(Agro-ecological Zone, AEZ) at county level with GIS technology. The results show that in general the potential grain productivity tends to be higher in southeast than in northeast China, and the average potential photosynthetic productivity, potential photo-temperature productivity, precipitation productivity, water resources productivity and land resources productivity is 65.12, 16.82, 13.74, 15.27 and 11.07 t/(hm²·a) respectively. The average resources utilization efficiency of photosynthetic, photo-temperature, water resources and land resources is 10.93%, 41.43%, 46.93% and 65.4%, respectively, which shows that the present grain productivity has more space to improve. The development of grain production varies significantly among the counties studied, and the utilization efficiency of agriculture resources in Inner Mongolia and Losses Plateau are lower, while in Northwest China, Huang-huai-hai Plain, Sichuan Basin the utilization efficiency of agriculture resources are higher.