Village-level agricultural development evaluation in South-middle Chinese Loess Plateau

In this study, relevance and dynamics of views on agricultural sustainability development at the South-middle Chinese Loess Plateau was examined. It has the goal to evaluate if the village-level agricultural development evaluation (VADE) indicators are sufficient to measure the village-level agricultural sustainability. The process emphasis: 1. According to field investigation and indoor laboratory analysis about 3 test villages - Xipo, Feimahe and Nangou which all located at South-middle Chinese Loess Plateau, specific data was collected and inputted to a GISystem; 2. Based on agricultural development situation, with the help of GISystem and expert system, VADE indicators were abstracted and deducted; 3. In accordance with 7 detailed steps of VADE process, summary ecological, economic, social benefits were calculated; 4. Overall agricultural development evaluation about these 3 villages was discussed. It shows that 19 indicators selected for VADE are proved to be reasonable and computable. This paper introduces a methodological framework of VADE that integrates AHP and DM to evaluate the effect of agricultural development.