Jing SUN，Baofeng CHEN

1.College of Economics and Management，China Agricultural University，Beijing 100084，China；2.Business School，Beijing Wuzi University，Beijing 101149，China

1 Introduction

Agricultural technology innovation is a process of research and development of new agricultural technologies or experimental development；and a process of introducing，absorbing，imitating，improving and promoting new agricultural technology，and re-combining the original agricultural technology［1］.It is also away to applymaterial equipment and resources for reasonably efficient allocation［2］.Agricultural science and technology innovation is a social activity that humans participate in，and people's innovation values and innovative atmosphere of society are important external conditions for the technological innovation［3］.The effective supply of agricultural science and technology innovation is insufficient in China，largely due to long-term insufficient investment in agricultural technology innovation［4］.By comparing the development of agricultural science and technology between Eastern and Western countries，we believe that the main reason for high level of research and numerous agricultural science and technology achievements in Western countries lies in the large number of outstanding talents of agricultural science and technology［2］.Colleges and universities，engaged in teaching and basic agricultural research and high-tech research，play a unique role in the process of China's agricultural science and technology innovation.Research institute is an important partof nationalagricultural science and technology innovation system，and itaims to solve the critical and strategic issues concerning agricultural science and technology［5］.There are also the research and promotion agencies directly under the government，responsible for the welfare function for agricultural and rural development［6］.The enterprises also play an important role in promoting R＆D of agricultural technology.From the current development situation，the enterprises still do not have the same status of R＆D compared with research institutes or universities［3］.In the literature，itmainly performs the qualitative analysis of innovators，but lacks the differentiation analysis of different innovators'innovation activities based on quantification.

2 Evaluation of level of innovation in projects

The object of this survey includes the leaders of agricultural sector support program started from 2006 and concluded in 2010.The survey was conducted in June2012-September2012，andmostof the questionnaireswere sent to the projectundertakers bymail.A total of about 1000 questionnaires were distributed and 322 valid questionnaires were returned.Using questionnaire and statistical analysis，this paper collates and summarizes the finished agricultural sector projects concerning the＂Eleventh Five-Year Plan＂，in order to provide a reference for the effective application of innovative approaches in agricultural research and improvement of research projectmanagement level.

2.1 Project undertakers'self-evaluation of level of innovation in projectsMostof the project teams select＂very innovative＂in the self-evaluation of levelof innovation（202 persons），followed by＂comparatively innovative＂（65 persons）and＂most innovative＂（46 persons）.There are 9 project teams choosing＂generally innovative＂and＂slightly innovative＂，as shown in Fig.1.

2.2 The difference in the innovators'self-evaluation of level of innovationIn the questionnaire，we divide the units undertaking projects into universities，research institutes，extension departments，and enterprises.These units constitute themain body of agricultural science and technology innovation.By the statistical analysis，it is found that there are differences in the evaluation of overall level of innovation between units of different nature，and the contingency table and descriptive statistics［7］are shown in Table 1，2，respectively.

Now we perform the variance test on different innovators'overall level of innovation，in order to get the differences in the level of innovation in projects between different units，and the results are shown in Table 3.The significance level is 0.1，indicating that there are generally significant differences in the evaluation of overall level of innovation in project between different units.It can be inferred that among the innovators of agricultural science and technology projects，enterprises'self-evaluated level of innovation is high，followed by extension departments，universities，and research institutes.

Table 1 Contingency table of different units'evaluation score on overall level of innovation in the project

Table 2 Descriptive statistics on different units'evaluation score of overall level of innovation in the project

Table 3 Variance analysis of different units'evaluation score on overall level of innovation in the project

3 Study on the factors influencing the level of innovation in projects

3.1 Analysis of the factors which can improve the level of innovation in projectsIn the questionnaire，projectundertakers set forth the recommendations for better improving the level of innovation in the project（Fig.2）.From the frequency of descriptive statistics，67%ofundertakersbelieve thatgiving adequate research fundingwill help improve the level of innovation in the project，andmore than 40%of undertakers believe that building efficient research personnel，exploring research ideas and using scientific researchmethod can improve the level of innovation in projects.About30%of undertakers believe that the level of scientific research of the project can be also improved from theway of organization and management，and advanced research tools.Adequate funding can not only ensure the successful completion of the project，but also ensure the improvement of innovation in projects.

3.2 Regression analysisof the factorswhich can improve the level of innovation in project and self-evaluation of level of innovationFrom the statistical description，although there are a lot of project undertakers who opt for research funding from the key factors influencing the level of innovation in projects，it is found that the results are not in linewith facts after the regression analysis of the factorswhich can improve the level of innovation in project and self-evaluation of innovation.The regression coefficients and significance can be shown in Table 4.In Table 4，the factorswith significance level of less than 0.05 include＂advanced and efficient researchmethods＂，＂rational and efficientway oforganization and management＂，and＂innovative research results＂.＂Reasonable and practicable research idea＂isonlymarginally significant.The standardized coefficientof innovative research results is 0.309，and it can be said that the impactof innovative research results on evaluation of levelof innovation isgreater than the positive impact of advanced and efficient researchmethods（standardized coefficientof0.155）on evaluation of level of innovation，and also greater than the negative impact of rational and efficient way of organization and management on evaluation of level of innovation.In contrast，we can see that the project team paysmore attention to the pursuit of innovation in scientific research achievements but ignore＂clear and appropriate research goal＂，＂reasonable and practicable research idea＂and＂advanced and efficient research tool＂based on process.

3.3 The differences in different innovators'evaluation of level of innovation in projectsNow we'll discuss the differences in different innovators'evaluation under the above three significant influencing factors，and the average value of factors influencing different innovators'innovation can be shown in Fig.3.

3.3.1Focusing on the innovation in research results.In the regression analysis，the innovation in research results is significantly correlated with projectundertakers'overallevaluation of innovation in the projects，indicating that the researchers laymore emphasis on innovation in the research results and believe that the innovative research results are largely tantamount to the innovation of the projects.For the innovators of different nature，we perform the analysis on whether there isa difference in the innovative research results（Table 5，6）.From the average value of innovation in research results，it is high in the extension departments，followed by enterprises，universities and research institutes.However，after the analysis of variance，it is found that there are no significant differences for the four kinds of innovators'scores of＂innovative research results＂，and we cannot conclude that the innovation results of enterprises is necessarily higher than the innovation in the research results of other units.

Table 4 Regression coefficients

3.3.2Paying increasing attention to the researchmethods.After the innovative approaches are promoted in the field of agricultural science and technology，through the significant influence of＂advanced and efficient researchmethods＂in the regression analysis，we can see that＂independent innovation，method first＂has been widely accepted.For the innovators，we perform the analysis on whether there is difference in＂advanced and efficient research methods＂，as shown in Table 7，8.In terms of the average value of＂advanced and efficient researchmethods＂，it is high for enterprises，and there are minor differences among universities，research institutes and extension departments.According to analysis of variance，there is no significant difference in scores of＂advanced and efficient research methods＂among different innovators.

Table 5 Statistical description of different innovators'scores of＂innovative research results＂

Table 6 Variance analysis of different innovators'scores of＂innovative research results＂

Table 7 Statistical description of different innovators'scores of＂advanced and efficient research methods＂

Table 8 Variance analysis of different innovators'scores of＂advanced and efficient research methods＂

Table 9 Statistical description of different innovators'scores of＂rational and efficientmode of organization and management＂

Table 10 Variance analysis of different innovators'scores of＂rational and efficientmode of organization and management＂

3.3.3Changing themode of organization andmanagement.The＂rational and efficientway oforganization andmanagement＂hasa negative impact in the regression analysis of level of innovation in projects.Obviously，the project undertakers urgently need to create the environment and atmosphere for innovation，and themanagement departments only need to provide necessarymaterial conditions and relatively relaxing regulation and management.We do research work on whether there isa difference in the＂rationaland efficient way of organization and management＂between different innovators，as shown in Table 9 and 10.In terms of the average value of＂rational and efficient way of organization and management＂，it is high for enterprises，and there are no large differ-ences among universities，research institutes，and departments directly under the government.According to the analysis of variance，there isno significantdifference in scoresof＂innovative research results＂among the different innovators.

4 Recommendations for improving the level of innovation in agricultural science and technology projects

4.1 Gradually form ing the enterprise-led innovation mechanismIn recent years，China's agricultural enterprises havemade great progress，and the enterprises'innovation ability has been constantly enhanced.They gradually become important forces in agricultural production and operation activities.Chinese enterprises should enhance the ability of agricultural science and technology innovation，pay more attention to scientific and technological resources and human resources，and improve new product development capability，in order to gradually become an important innovation force in the agricultural technology field.

4.2 Creating a research atmosphere conducive to innovationProjectmanagers should loose control over the original innovation，without specifying mandatory targets.For the projectmanagement，it is urgently needed to continueweakening the＂administration＂effect on project management and reasonably allocate project resources.It is necessary to simplify the declaration and reporting procedures to avoid spendingmore energy on something related to research［7］，and set up scientific and objective evaluation criteria for fair and impartial review.

4.3 Strengthening the evaluation of innovation in the projectsDuring the establishment of agricultural projects，it is necessary to strengthen the evaluation of project research methods，institution's innovation conditions and level of innovation in the achievements，foster the innovative projects，and better give play to the role of support projectand other projects in breaking through the bottleneck constraints and enhancing the agricultural competitiveness.

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