Temporal and spatial characteristics of agricultural green development indica-tors in counties of Hebei Province

In order to analyze the main problems and limiting factors of agricultural green development at county level in Hebei Province, this study took 135 counties (districts) in Hebei Province as the research objects, focusing on five dimensions (society, economy, productivity, resources and ecological environment), selected 26 agricultural green development indicators based on expert opinions and statistical data to analyze the spatio-temporal change characteristics of agricultural green development indicators at county scale in Hebei Province in 1996 and 2016. According to the degree of agricultural green development from high to low, the selected indicators were divided into Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ and Ⅳ grades. The results showed that the agricultural production condition in Hebei Province had been improved continuously from 1996 to 2016. The agricultural mechanization level and farmland irrigation level had increased at different degrees. The agricultural economic benefits also improved greatly, in which agricultural output value per unit cultivated land area and rural disposable income per capita increased by 1.96 times and 3.05 times, respectively. The agricultural production capacity continued to increase, as demonstrated by the continuous increases in caloric and protein production per unit cultivated land area and utilization efficiency of nitrogen. The input of resources increased resulting from the use intensity of nitrogen, phosphorus, pesticide and agricultural film increased continuously; and the environmental risk remained at a high level. In terms of spatial variation, the degree of agricultural green development of social development, economy and agricultural production in the northeast and south of Hebei Province showed an increasing trend, while that of resources and eco-environmental indicators showed a decreasing trend. The results showed the characteristics of high degree of agricultural green development in the northwest and southeast of the province. The number of counties with the grade Ⅰ green development of five indexes was relatively high, showing a significant spatial difference. The main bottleneck of agricultural green development in Hebei Province came from resource shortage, environmental pollution and ecological destruction; which caused by the excessive investment of resources, the change of planting and breeding structure and the separation of agriculture and animal husbandry. It is necessary for the agricultural green development in Hebei Province to improve the efficiency of resource utilization, keep the environment clean and the ecosystem stable.