Evolution of Agricultural Innovation Ecosystem in County Areas: A Life-Cycle Perspective of Cases in Hebei Province

The concept of agricultural innovation ecosystem in county areas was defined by reviewing the literature on agricultural innovation systems and innovation ecosystems. Combined with the urgent demand for agricultural innovation-driven development, a multidimensional agricultural innovation ecosystem was established in county areas. From the life-cycle perspective, the evolution law of agricultural innovation ecosystems in county areas was analyzed, and the evaluation system was constructed from four aspects: subjects, network, resources, and the environment. Then, the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution approach was used to determine the evolution stage of the system. It was found that the agricultural innovation ecosystem in county areas includes three ecological layers of microsubjects, meso-interfaces, and the macroenvironment. The microsubjects exchange material, energy, and information, with the macroenvironment more effectively depending on the carrier function of meso-interfaces. The system shows periodic laws in the process of spiraling evolution, gestation, growth, maturity, and recession, where different stages of the system exhibit different characteristics. Through an empirical analysis of the apple industry of Neiqiu County, Shunping County, and Yi County in Hebei province, the innovation ecosystems formed around the apple industry in the three counties were judged to be in the maturity stage, growth stage, and growth stage, respectively. The evaluation results are consistent with the actual situation, which effectively verified the scientific nature and effectiveness of the theoretical model and the evolutionary evaluation index system.