An Evaluation System for Agriculture and Tourism Coupling Degree of Rural Complex Based on Production-living-ecological Space

Yan WANG, Keying LINGHU, Yiwei FENG, Jingyi YANG, Chang ZHONG, Junyi WEI

College of Tourism, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611830, China

Abstract Rural complex is a bright spot for China to realize the development of new industries for rural revitalization.Starting from the concept, development history and current situation of rural complex, based on the perspective of production-living-ecological space, according to the different characteristics of agriculture and tourism, 3 secondary indices and 18 tertiary indices were selected, and each of them was weighted using the Delphi expert consultation method and analytic hierarchy process(AHP)to construct an evaluation system for the coupling degree of agriculture and tourism in rural complex.The results show gross domestic product and forest coverage have the most significant impact on agriculture, economic benefits and the ecological water quality of tourist attractions have the most significant impact on the tourism industry, and tourism economic benefits and agricultural ecological benefits have the most significant impact on rural complex.

Key words Rural revitalization, Production-living-ecological space, Agriculture, Tourism, Rural complex, Agriculture and tourism coupling, Evaluation system, Analytic hierarchy process(AHP)

1 Introduction

In 2017, the Central Document No.1 proposed the concept of "rural complex" for the first time to explore the new development model of villages[1].In recent years, the research on the rural complex has gradually developed from the initial theoretical exploration to the exploration of the village planning and design with the rural complex as the construction goal, the conception of the comprehensive development approach of villages, and the achievements of the pilot project construction[2].However, there are few studies on the rural complex planning model for the two major industries of agriculture and tourism from the perspective of production-living-ecological space.Under the guidance of the rural revitalization strategy, the coupling of agriculture and tourism is a new idea for the development of the two major industries.The evaluation of the coupling degree of agriculture and tourism in the rural complex is an important foundation for the development of tourism resources.Scientific and objective resource evaluation can provide theoretical basis and guidance for the development of tourism resources.

2 Overview of rural complex

2.1 Concept and development historyIn the context of rural supply-side structural reforms, the integration of urban and rural areas and the process of urbanization are highly developed[3], and rural complexes have emerged.This idea originated from the New Pastoralism Project in Yangshan Town, Huishan District, Wuxi City, advocating harmony between man and nature and realizing the integration of multiple functions such as characteristic agricultural products processing, ecological agriculture and leisure tourism[4].This research defines the rural complex as integrating ecological construction into the leisure industry, and it is a new development model with ecological solutions[5].Rural complex can realize farmers’ participation in gaining benefits, which is an objective requirement of agricultural and rural development[6].

In the current domestic research, Zhu Zhiwei[7]proposed to build a new agricultural management system to promote the integration of industry and village.Yang Lixian[8]believes that the rural complex spans the primary industry and the tertiary industry, realizes the organic combination of agriculture and service industry, and realizes the integration of production, living and ecological space.Generally speaking, the domestic research results about the agricultural transformation, development path[3, 5, 8], industrial integration, and comprehensive development[4, 6]of rural complex are relatively rich.In foreign countries, in the 1970s, with the rapid development of urbanization, developed countries began to vigorously develop rural tourism.Nowadays, rural tourism abroad has basically developed to a mature stage, gradually forming a complex, multifunctional and sustainable rural tourism collection[9].The "rural tourism collection" here is similar to China’s rural complex.The research on similar rural complexes is mainly represented by the United States and Japan.The development of rural tourism in the United States is relatively mature.The research mainly involves new agriculture, sustainable rural development paths[10]and the role of social capital injection under the American economic model[11].Japan’s rural tourism integrated development model is similar to China’s rural complex, but its functional clusters tend to be more systematized, industrial division of labor is clearly refined, economic benefits achieved are higher, and research focuses more on reflections on the development of rural tourism[12-13].

Domestic and foreign researches on the construction of rural complex evaluation system are relatively limited.Among them, some domestic scholars conduct evaluation starting from the suitability of project construction, and construct the index system of each cluster using the comprehensive method[9].The concept of coupling comes from physics.It refers to the mutual influence and collaboration between two or more units, and through the interaction, the dynamic balance of transferring energy from one to the other is realized[2].Agriculture and tourism coupling reflects the industrial linkage between agriculture and tourism.However, few scholars at home and abroad have constructed the evaluation system from the perspective of the coupling of agriculture and tourism and the "production-living-ecological space", and this research has a large space for exploration.

2.2 The current situation of rural complex in ChinaAt present, the construction scale of China’s rural complex is continuously expanding, and the development has achieved initial results.The 10 provinces(municipalities directly under the Central Government)such as Shaanxi, Sichuan, Shanxi and Chongqing have all had rural complex pilot projects[4], and selected the construction sites according to the principle of having characteristics, having foundation, having potential, having scale and having advantages.Rural complex projects with a certain scale are located in Xiaoqiu Town, Yaozhou District, Tongchuan County, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, Xinli Town, Zhongxian County, Chongqing City, and Xujia Town and Tianma Town, Dujiangyan City, Sichuan Province[4].

During the construction process, according to different conditions such as native resources and infrastructure, the focus of construction varies from place to place.According to the functions, rural complex can be roughly divided into five categories: cultural tourism and leisure, agricultural production, industrial processing, comprehensive services and living and residence[4].Each place conducts planning in accordance with local conditions, retains their own characteristics, and exerts their own advantages, conducive to realize the coordinated development of production-living-ecological space and the overall goal of coordination and integration of rural agriculture and tourism.

3 Analytic hierarchy process(AHP)

In the 1970s, the operations research expert Professor Satie first proposed the analytic hierarchy process(AHP), which is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and an analysis method suitable for weighted decision-making with multiple targets and multiple criteria.The application of the AHP method requires the establishment of a hierarchical analysis structure model after the problem is clarified, construct a judgment matrix, calculate index weights, conduct consistency checks, calculate the comprehensive weight of each index in the index layer, and use this as the basis for selecting the optimal solution[14].AHP involves many fields such as economy, politics, ecology and society, and is mainly used in economic fields and industrial technology fields.In 2014, AHP began to be applied to tourism resource evaluation research[15].For example, Song Anningetal.[16]used the AHP method as a theoretical method to construct the national cultural tourism brand index system in Dali.

AHP can provide a hierarchical thinking framework for research.It is conducive to the arrangement of ideas in the research process, so that the research structure is rigorous and the thinking is clear.Simultaneously, scaling is performed by pairwise comparison, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, making the research process scientific and organized[17].This research gives full play to the advantages of AHP, carries out in-depth scientific analysis and application of the construction results to analyze and judge the influencing factors of agriculture and tourism coupling in rural complex, in order to provide reference for the development planning and construction of rural complex.

4 Construction of an evaluation system for the coupling degree of agriculture and tourism in rural complex

4.1 Index selectionThe report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that the intensive and high-efficiency production space, the suitable living space, and the ecological space are the development goals of optimizing the land space, and are also basic requirements for sustainable urban and rural development.In this article, based on the perspective of production-living-ecological space, the coupling degree of agriculture and tourism in the rural complex is analyzed, and combining the multiple and complex functions of production-living-ecological space, the interaction, mutual restrict and promotion among life, ecology and production are explored, so as to optimize the relationships between man and man, man and society, and man and nature, achieve the goal of coordinating the planning and construction of rural complex, and promote the sustainable development of rural complex[18].Based on reading a large number of related documents and field visits to the Tianfuyuan Rural Complex in Dujiangyan, the rural complex in Tongchuan City, Shanxi Province and the rural complex in Zhongxian County, Chongqing, starting from two perspectives of agriculture and tourism, the coupling degree of agriculture and tourism in rural complex based on the production-living-ecological space is measured, and an evaluation system is established in this article.

4.1.1Living indices.Living function refers to the ability of rural complex to provide residents with a living environment.It is a representation of rural complex in terms of living security, and can reflect the income, consumption structure and basic welfare of residents[19].The realization of the living function of rural complex relies on the "people-oriented" scientific development concept[20].Therefore, this study selected the primary industry employees and the per capita net income of farmers as the sub-indices of the living function of agriculture, and the number of direct and indirect employees in the tourism industry and the per capita income of the tourism industry as the sub-indices of the living function of tourism industry.

4.1.2Ecological indices.Ecological function refers to the ability of rural complex to provide residents with ecological industrial services and maintain the stability of the ecosystem[19].Therefore, this study characterized the strength of ecological function from two aspects: environmental governance capacity and ecological environment quality, and selected the forest coverage rate[21]and agricultural waste recycling rate as sub-indices of the ecological environment governance capability of agriculture, the percentage of irrigation water sources with water quality above grade III[22]as a sub-index of the ecological environment quality of agriculture, the vegetation area occupied by tourism and the recycling rate of tourism waste as the sub-indices of the ecological environment governance capacity of tourism industry and the percentage of water features with water quality above grade III[23]as a sub-index of the ecological environment quality of tourism industry.

4.1.3Production indices.Production function refers to the ability of rural complex to provide products and increase social wealth[19], and it is also the most direct manifestation of the level of economic development.Therefore, the agricultural added value, investment in primary industry, the number of agricultural industrial parks, and the proportion of agricultural added value in GDP[24]were selected as the sub-indices of the production function of agriculture, and the tourism added value, investment in tertiary industry, the number of tourism-related enterprises, and the proportion of tourism added value in GDP were selected as the sub-indices of the production function of tourism industry.In this study, all the indices were classified into primary, secondary and tertiary indices(Table 1).

4.2 Determination of index weight

4.2.1Constructing the judgment matrix.After determining the indices, in order to compare the relative importance of the indices in a certain level to an index in the upper layer, the Delphi expert consultation method was used to design the questionnaire, and the meaning scale was carried out through expert scoring[25](Table 2).

In this study, five experts in the fields of ecotourism, agricultural economics, and agricultural basic sciences were issued expert scoring tables to judge the relative importance of the indices.On this basis, eight judgement matrices were constructed, and taking ecological indices of agriculture as an example, the analysis was performed(Table 3).

Table 2 Meaning of judgement matrix scale

Table 1 Index system for coupling degree between agriculture and tourism

The judgement matrix was as follows:

4.2.2Calculation of hierarchical index feature vector.According to AHP, the calculation steps are as follows:

After normalization, the following was gotten:

The eigenvectorWcorresponding to the maximum eigenvalueλmaxwas calculated.According to the formulaA·w=λmax·w, combined with the eigenvector, the maximum eigenvectorλmaxwas calculated[26].

4.2.3Consistency check.The consistency of the above results was checked according to the following formula:

CR=CI/RI

According to the constructed third-order judgment matrix, combined with the data in Table 4, the values of maximum eigenvalue,CI,RIandCRwere 3.009, 0.005, 0.520, 0.009, respectively, indicating that the consistency test was passed.

Table 4 Random consistency RI

The smaller theCRvalue, the better the consistency of the judgment matrix.If theCRvalue is less than 0.1, the judgment matrix satisfies the consistency test; if theCRvalue is greater than 0.1, the judgment matrix is not consistent, and it needs to be adjusted for later analysis.TheCIvalue calculated in this study was 0.005, and theRIvalue calculated was 0.520, and theCRvalue calculated was 0.009<0.1, indicating that the third-order judgment matrix constructed by this research satisfied the consistency test, and the calculation results of the weights were consistent.

4.3 Check resultsIn the same way, the index order of the other 8 matrices is obtained, as well as the maximum eigenvalue λmax, consistency indexCI, random consistency indexRI.Finally, the consistency of the results was checked.The matrix that had not passed the consistency test was modified.On the basis of respecting the wishes of experts in their judgment, appropriate adjustments were made to the relative importance of the indices until they passed the consistency test(Table 5-6).

Table 6 Agriculture-tourism weight index

Table 5 Agriculture-tourism matrix eigenvector

5 Analysis and application of evaluation system

5.1 Analysis of index weightThe weight ranking of the 3 secondary indices and 18 tertiary indices was determined through weight calculation.Among the secondary agricultural indices, the weight of ecological indices had the most significant impact, ranking first; and the weights of living and production indices were equally affected, suggesting that in the agricultural industry, ecological benefits had the most significant impact on the rural complex.Among the secondary indices, the weight of production indices had the most significant impact, and the weight of living indices ranked second, and the weight of ecological indices had the weakest impact.In summary, in tourism industry, production efficiency had the most significant impact on rural complex.

Among the tertiary indices, the top five in the ranking of weights are per capita income, proportion of agricultural added value in GDP, proportion of tourism added in GDP, forest coverage, number of agricultural employees and per capita net income of farmers(from large to small, the last two are equal), and the last three places in the weight ranking are the number of tourism-related enterprises, investment in the primary industry and investment in the tertiary industry(from large to small).

In the three-level index system of agriculture, the weights of the two living sub-indices had significant impacts.Among the ecological indices, forest coverage had the most significant impact.Among the living indices, the proportion of agricultural added value in GDP had the most significant impact.In the three-level index system of the tourism industry, among the living indices, the weight of per capita income had the most significant impact; among the ecological indices, the weight of the percentage of water features with water quality above grade III had the most significant impact; and among production indices, the impact of the proportion of tourism added value in GDP was the most significant.

It can be seen that the gross product value and forest coverage have the most significant impact on agriculture; the economic benefits and the ecological water quality of tourist attractions have the most significant impact on tourism industry; and the most significant impact on the rural complex is exerted by the economic benefits of tourism and the ecological benefits of agriculture.

5.2 Application of evaluation systemIn summary, the coordinated development of rural complex needs to pay attention to the ecological construction of farming areas and tourist areas.The main measures that should be taken are the follows: increasing the green area of rural complex, maximizing the efficient use of cultivated land in production areas, and increasing forest coverage; optimizing the water quality of scenic spots and providing a good ecological environment for the development of tourism; enhancing the tourist attraction and investment attractiveness of rural complex to inject new vitality into the development of local agriculture and tourism and promote the improvement of the employment quality and employment environment of local residents through the development of tourism, achieving both economic and ecological benefits.This evaluation system can be used as a reference for the government to conduct evaluation on rural complex and assessment on the coupling degree of agriculture and tourism in rural complex.It provides theoretical guidance for the future planning and construction of rural complex, and will promote the planning, construction and sustainable development of rural complex by promoting construction through evaluation and combining evaluation and construction.