Sustainability of eco-agricultural patterns in hilly red soil areas

121 households in Yujiang County, Jiangxi Province were interviewed using pre-designed questionnaire. Based on initial data analysis, the region can be classified into 8 eco-agricultural patterns: pure food grain（P₁）,agro-silvo-pasture（P₂）, agro-fruit-pasture（P₃）, agro-pastoral-processing（P_{4）, agro-pastoral-vegetable（P5）, agro-fruit（P6）, agro-pastoral-medicine（P7） and agro-pasture（P8）. The method of principal component analysis and integrative evaluation were adopted. The 8 eco-agricultural patterns were evaluated and analyzed in accordance with sustainable agricultural development. The sustainability index of the 8 eco-agricultural patterns ranges from 0.200 0~ 0.596 2, with P1 having lowest（0.200 0）. The sustainability indexes for P2, P5, P6, P7, P8 are between 0.31 and 0.47, and those for P4 and P3 are 0.596 2 and 0.513 3 respectively. A prolonged ecological chain can augment eco-agricultural sustainability index, improve eco-agricultural systems and enhance eco-agricultural stability.}