Analyzing Agricultural Agglomeration in China

Erling Li, Ken Coates, Xiaojian Li, Xinyue Ye and Mark Leipnik
Additional contact information
Erling Li: Collaborative Innovation Center on Yellow River Civilization of Henan Province, Centre for Coordinative Development in Zhongyuan Economic Region & Institute for Regional Development and Planning, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Ken Coates: Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B8, Canada
Xiaojian Li: Centre for Coordinative Development in Zhongyuan Economic Region, Henan University of Economics and Law, Zhengzhou 450000, China
Xinyue Ye: Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA
Mark Leipnik: Department of Geography & Geology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77340, USA

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: There has been little scholarly research on Chinese agriculture’s geographic pattern of agglomeration and its evolutionary mechanisms, which are essential to sustainable development in China. By calculating the barycenter coordinates, the Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation and specialization indices for 11 crops during 1981–2012, we analyze the evolutionary pattern and mechanisms of agricultural agglomeration. We argue that the degree of spatial concentration of Chinese planting has been gradually increasing and that regional specialization and diversification have progressively been strengthened. Furthermore, Chinese crop production is moving from the eastern provinces to the central and western provinces. This is in contrast to Chinese manufacturing growth which has continued to be concentrated in the coastal and southeastern regions. In Northeast China, the Sanjiang and Songnen plains have become agricultural clustering regions, and the earlier domination of aquaculture and rice production in Southeast China has gradually decreased. In summary, this paper provides a political economy framework for understanding the regionalization of Chinese agriculture, focusing on the interaction among the objectives, decisionmaking behavior, path dependencies and spatial effects.

Keywords: agricultural evolution; geographical agglomeration; agricultural clusters; spatial analysis; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/313/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/313/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:313-:d:90831

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().