Abstract: Agro-ecosystem is the most basic system for human beings survival, while the analysis of the structure and function of the system is the key to solve the problems of agro-ecological environment. In this paper, emergy theory and related economic measurement methods including data envelopment analysis, cointegration test, and error correction model were applied to quantitatively analyze the operation dynamics, environmental loading, operation efficiency, and input-output relation of the agro-ecosystems in Sichuan Province and its 21 cities in 1997-2009. In the study period, Sichuan Province was in the transition period from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. The agricultural mechanization level of the Province improved constantly, resources utilization efficiency enhanced continually, overall structural dominant degree was better, but the over-reliance on economic emergy input caused the sustainability of the system weakened gradually. The development status of the agro-ecosystems in the Province varied among regions. Chengdu Plain and Western Sichuan Highland were either in overexploited or in underutilized, while the hilly areas were full of vitality and development potential, tended to be the important areas for the future development of Sichuan agriculture. Generally, the operation efficiency of the agro-ecosystems in the Province was relatively low, with the situation differed in different regions due to the lower technical efficiency or improper scale. There was a long-term equilibrium between the economic emergy indices and output emergy, but the short-term emergy input didn’t reach the ideal output.

Key words: agro-ecosystem, emergy evaluation, dynamic measurement, Sichuan Province