Evaluation Models for Multifunctionality of Agriculture and Their Applications
农业多功能性多维评价模型及其应用研究

Multifunctionality in agriculture refers to the non-trade benefits of agriculture, that is, benefits other then commerce and food production such as environmental protection, landscape preservation, rural employment, and food security in terms of the WTO definition. Due to specific natural conditions and human activities, agricultural heritage sites always have a fragile ecological environment, rich cultures, undeveloped economy as well as multifunctionality in agriculture. This means that agricultural heritage sites have production, ecological, cultural and other functions. To that end, recognizing and evaluating multifunctionality of agriculture at agricultural heritage sites would be conducive to a comprehensive understanding of the value of the agricultural heritage, and in turn to providing guidance for agricultural development. Based on the definition of multifunctionality of agriculture at agricultural heritage sites, the authors established evaluation models for agricultural multifunctionality at agricultural heritage sites and examined Qingtian County in Zhejiang Province, the first pilot site of Globally Agricultural Heritage Systems selected by FAO in 2005. Multifunctionality of agriculture at agricultural heritage sites can reflect essentially in five aspects, i.e., the food production, agricultural biodiversity conservation, traditional agricultural knowledge system and culture conservation, agro-ecological environmental protection and agricultural landscape conservation. The value of the food production function is determined by the guaranteed rate of per capita grain and equivalent per capita arable land area. The value of agricultural biodiversity conservation function can be determined by the diversity of traditional rice varieties. The value of traditional agricultural knowledge system and culture conservation is determined by the importance of intangible culture heritage. The value of agro-ecological environmental protection is determined by fertilizer and pesticide intensity and Eco-environmental Quality Index (EQI). The value of landscape conservation is determined by the tourism revenue. Evaluation results indicated that Qingtian County showed the highest value of 0.86 in agro-ecological environmental protection and an agricultural landscapes conservation value of 0.83, but it had the lowest value of 0.27 in agricultural biodiversity conservation. Using a multi-dimensional model, the comprehensive value of multifunctionality in agriculture in Qingtian County was found to be 0.641. Qingtian County has a long history of raising fish in rice paddies and has been maintaining the traditional rice-fish system exemplified in traditional ecological agriculture. The government and people there have been dedicating to developing green rice-fish products and agricultural tourism, thereby resulting in the highest value of agro-ecological environmental protection and agricultural landscapes conservation. Located in the eastern developed