Evaluation of Chinese Agricultural Mechanization and Institutional Transformation based on TOPSIS Algorithm

摘要

Mechanization is fundamental for agricultural modernization and informationization in China. The special economy structure of Chinese agriculture and the strong influence from the Chinese government (i.e. family rent and responsibility policy) make the evaluation on agriculture mechanization a challenging task. A new approach to measure the mechanization of agriculture quantitatively and objectively is proposed in this paper. By using PCA and TOPSIS algorithms, the ranks of different regions in development of agricultural mechanization in China are calculated for year 2000, 2003, and 2006. Taking 29 regions in China as the case study, we calculate several application measurements on its agricultural mechanization during the 2000-2006 periods. These numerical measurements reflect the current status of agriculture mechanization and enable us to gain more deep understanding of the underlying influence of the institution.