Abstract:

Based on shiftshare method，we resolve agricultural economic growth into three aspects: area share growth，structure deviation component and competitive deviation component. Targeting on Guang'an City and other five cities in the hilly areas in central Sichuan province，we selected the total output of agriculture，forestry and fishery as well as the output of agriculture sector in these areas as sample data，and investigated the differences in agricultural economic growth in the hilly areas of central Sichuan from 2003 to 2010. After analyzing the structural benefit and competitiveness of the agriculture sector，we concluded that agricultural economy in these areas has developed fast with reasonable agricultural structure but relatively weak competiveness. When comparing the agricultural economic development of the 6 areas within this region，we found that agricultural economic development of Suining is the slowest， and it has structural benefit but lacks competiveness while Neijiang，the one developing fastest，is of strong competitiveness，but its structural benefit is lower. Finally，the authors put forward some suggestions on adjusting agricultural structure and enhancing agricultural competitiveness in the hilly areas of central Sichuan province according to the results of the analysis.

Key words: agricultural structure, competitiveness, shiftshare method, the hilly areas of central Sichuan province, economic growth