Coupling relationship of ecological agricultural system of commodities in Ansai county based on structural equation model

To investigate possible differences in the coupling relationship of EASC (ecological agro-system of commodities) due to location, the coupling relationship of EASC in Ansai county and its south, north, and central section based on data from household surveys was analyzed using the structural equation model. Results showed that agricultural practices and agricultural resources were the core of the coupling relationship of EASC. When agricultural resources were utilized with low efficiency, agricultural practices did not advance in the same speed with environmental amelioration and agricultural resources accumulation, which hampered the optimization of the coupling relationship of EASC and also the advance of the regional economy. At the county scale, the ecological environment had direct impacts on the system coupling, but the standardized estimate was -0.11, which caused the standardized estimate between agricultural resources and agricultural practices was only 0.46, weakening the efficiency of the system coupling on economic benefits. Although agricultural resources for the environment increased by enforcing the Grain for Green Project, the effect of the coupling relationship of EASC was insignificant, resulting from the agricultural resources not being utilized efficiently. In south, north, and central Ansai county, the coupling models of EASC were “stockbreeding - fruit tree planting - installment agriculture”, “grazing - special agricultural product - production forest” and “production forest - fruit tree planting - installment agriculture” accordingly. Differences in the coupling model of EASC, induced by the location differences, made the characteristics of the coupling relationships distinct in each region of Ansai county. As there was not an effective and efficient production chain between livestock breeding and vegetation resources in south and central Ansai county, the coupling effect of EASC in north Ansai county was better. Since the agricultural resources were not used efficiently, consolidating the consistency between agricultural practices and agricultural resources should be the essence of future development. It would be necessary to strengthen stockbreeding and high-quality fruit tree planting as well as precision planting for making the chain network structure of EASC perfect and the coupling relationship between agricultural resources and agricultural practices optimum. Referring to the location characteristics, agricultural practices should be restructured and the chain network structure of EASC should be modified for the efficient development of EAC(ecological agriculture of commodities).