Process and mechanism of agricultural irrigation benefit allocation coefficient based on emergy analysis-a case study of Henan, China

Abstract

The progressive development of the agricultural production system is the foundation for promoting the rapid and efficient growth of the regional economy. In this study, the irrigation benefit allocation coefficient for the agricultural irrigation system of Henan Province from 1999 to 2014 was comprehensively investigated on the basis of the theory of emergy analysis. The process and mechanism of the variation coefficient were explored using ArcGIS 10.1 (Environmental System Research Institute, Redlands, USA) and SPSS 21.0 software (IBM, Chicago, USA), and the results were shown spatially. From the analysis and results, the emergy investment and yield in the Henan agricultural production system were found to continuously increase with annual increases of 2.26% and 4.22%, respectively. However, the irrigation benefit allocation coefficient of Henan showed a continuous downward trend with a total decrease of 0.026 due to precipitation. The irrigation benefit allocation coefficient fluctuated owing to the combined influence of multiple restraining factors, among which chemical fertilizers and pesticides played the dominant role. Therefore, comprehensive application of multiple emergy investment methods was critical for boosting emergy yield.