Regional Disparities in the Level of Agri-Environmental Vulnerability in Asia: A Country-Level Analysis

This study examine the spatio-temporal differences in agri-environmental vulnerability among the 42 Asian countries by applying the principal component analysis method. Therefore, to calculate the composite index of agri-environmental vulnerability for the selected countries, the secondary data on seven agri-environmental indicators (related to pre-and post-agricultural production activities) were extracted from the FAOSTAT and World Bank databases for the year 2010 and 2020. The results from the analysis described that during both periods, countries with large GDP and population size like, 'China' and 'India' were highly vulnerable, while countries with small GDP and population size like, 'Bhutan' and 'Laos' were least vulnerable due to their organic farming and green economy policies. Lastly, findings from the binary logistic regression analysis also indicate that the high-GDP countries were growing at the cost of their environmental degradation, which should be controlled logically by population optimization and the fair adoption of organic farming practices for a sustainable future.

本研究采用主成分分析（Principal Component Analysis）方法，探究了42个亚洲国家农业环境脆弱性的时空差异。为测算所选国家的农业环境脆弱性综合指数，本研究从FAOSTAT与世界银行（World Bank）数据库中提取了2010年与2020年的二手数据，涵盖7项与农业生产前后活动相关的农业环境指标。分析结果显示，在两个研究时段内，国内生产总值（GDP）与人口规模较大的中国、印度等国均处于高脆弱性状态；而GDP与人口规模较小的不丹、老挝等国则因推行有机农业与绿色经济政策，脆弱性最低。此外，二元逻辑回归分析结果还表明，高GDP国家的经济增长是以环境退化为代价的，对此需通过人口优化与公平推广有机农业实践进行合理管控，以迈向可持续发展的未来。