Evaluation and advancement of the integrated circular economy model of farming and stock raising

Abstract

The integrated circular economy model of farming and stock raising (ICEMFSR) has attracted increased attention as an effective model for solving the current irrational allocation of agricultural resources and realizing the agricultural value-added industrial chain. This study uses emergy analysis to comprehensively examine and evaluate the economic benefits, environmental pressures, and sustainable development levels of ICEMFSR in Shucheng County, China. The results show that the ICEMFSR possesses the value of popularization with optimally allocated resources in the studied region, in which the emergy yield ratio (EYR), emergy loading ratio (ELR), and emergy sustainable index (ESI) in this model accounted for 3.59, 1.25, and 2.89, respectively. This result indicates a leading position in the national agricultural system. Hence, this study constructs a new model based on the coupling of emergy evaluation and multi-objective linear programming to study ICEMFSR. Consequently, the EYR, ELR, and ESI respectively varied by +24.23%, −10.40%, and +38.06% after replanning of ICEMFSR. This variation implies a significant improvement in the sustainable development level of the model. In addition, the optimized scenario design for key substances is proposed based on traceability and the reduce-reuse-recycle principle, including biogasification of crop straw and enhancement of crop scientific planting capacity.

Keywords

• Circular economy model
• Emergy evaluation
• Multi-objective linear programming
• Optimization suggestions