The Spatial Distribution and Impacts of Organic Certificates in Southwest China

Haixia Guo, Yike Li, Meiting Hou and Xie Wang ()
Additional contact information
Haixia Guo: Key Laboratory of the Philosophy and Social Sciences of Sichuan Province on the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Utilization of Rural Land, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130, China
Yike Li: Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Meiting Hou: China Meteorological Administration Training Centre, Beijing 100081, China
Xie Wang: Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610066, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 20, 1-13

Abstract: Organic farming is a good choice for agricultural development in southwest China under the trade-off between environmental protection and agricultural development. However, no researcher has investigated the current state and development of organic agriculture in southwest China. As a result, this paper explored the spatial structure of organic agriculture in southwest China by examining the distribution of organic certificates, as well as the environmental and socioeconomic impacts. The results show a dramatically uneven distribution of certified organics among different provinces, cities, and organic certificate types. On the province scale, Guizhou has the highest number (1174) and density (73.40 per 10 10 m 2 ) of organic certificates. On the city scale, Zunyi and Chengdu have the highest densities (218.77 and 342.52 per 10 10 m 2 , respectively). Most of the certified organics are plants, accounting for 76.95%. The spatial distribution of organic farming is influenced by the interaction of several factors, including precipitation, temperature, GDP, highway density, gross agriculture output, agriculture machinery, and rural employed persons. However, the related and determinant factors of organic certificate distribution vary greatly across different regions, spatial scales, economic development levels, and agricultural development statuses. For the entirety of southwestern China, the factors significantly related to the distribution of organic certificates are GDP, highway density, gross agriculture output, agriculture machinery, and rural employed persons. However, these factors are GDP, gross agriculture output, agriculture machinery, and rural employed persons for Sichuan, and gross agriculture output and rural employed persons for Guizhou. Factors constraining the development of organic agriculture in regions with better economic and agricultural conditions are much fewer than in poorer regions. All of the nine selected variables, except global radiation, are significantly related to organic certificate distribution in regions with better economic conditions, while none of them had a significant correlation with organic certificate distribution in poorer regions. Furthermore, climate is no longer a constraint in regions with better agricultural conditions. These findings are of great significance for the development and research of organic agriculture in southwest China. The development of organic agriculture in southwest China requires consideration of both the combination of multiple factors and the stage of regional economic and agricultural development.

Keywords: organic farming; unevenness; government policy; economic condition; agricultural condition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/14663/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/14663/ (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:15:y:2023:i:20:p:14663-:d:1256476

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 ().