Differentiation in households production in the view of sustainable development evaluation

Vast grassland degradation enables professionals and governments to pay attention to the merit and demerit of households production as the basic unit of livestock production and environmental protection; therefore, it is essential to assess the merit and demerit of household in the view of sustainable development. In this study, an index system was established to comprehensively estimate the ability of sustainable development of household for sighting into the features of household and the differences in management characteristics of the household. The established index system included 3 layers, consisting of 1 decision layer, 3 criterion layers and 16 indicators, and ability of sustainable development of 30 households were estimated by using established index system in Bayan Sil, Inner Mongolia. This study indicated that the established framework performed well, corresponding to actual household life. A conclusion was drew that management decisions resulted in differences of productive income and living standards, which further became the key drive affecting the ability of sustainable development of household. This study proposed that the structure of food consumption, productive investment, possession of grassland resources, and return on investment, life consumption, the per capita net income and capital accumulation were main index to estimate the differences of households. The results of this study suggested that strengthening and optimizing production management was an important way to promoting sustainable development of household.