Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2014, Vol. 69 ›› Issue (7): 907-915.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201407003

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Dynamic trends and driving forces of land-use intensification in the cultivated land of China

Guogang WANG1,2(), Yansui LIU2(), Yangfen CHEN1,2   

  1. 1. Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, CAAS, Beijing 100081, China
    2. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • Received:2013-09-17 Revised:2013-10-15 Online:2014-07-20 Published:2014-07-20
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41130748;Central Research Institutes of Basic Research and Public Service Special Operations

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to establish several important factors representing the land-use intensification in the cultivated land (denoted by CII) using a multi-dimensional approach for achieving realistic and practical cultivated land use policies. For this reason, the theoretical framework was firstly built to explain the changes of land-use intensification in the cultivated land, and then the variables and index were further developed for characterizing the dynamic trends and driving forces of the land-use intensification in the cultivated land at provincial level. Results indicate that the extent of CII obviously increased during the period from 1996 to 2008 due to the extensively use of fertilizers, machinery and pesticide, the increased labor and capital input as well as the intensified land use. Moreover, the principal component regression results show that the productivity of cultivated land, the economic benefits of cultivated land, the labor productivity and the land use conversion are the main factors affecting the village development. The first three factors play a positive role while the last one produces a negative effect on the land-use intensification in the cultivated land. According to these results, main policies for sustainable intensification in cultivated land are formulated. Firstly, the sustainable pathways for intensification should be adopted to reduce the unsustainable uses of chemical fertilizer, agricultural chemicals and etc. Secondly, the condition for agricultural production should be further improved to increase the cultivated land productivity. Thirdly, it is necessary and helpful for improving labor productivity and land use efficiency from the viewpoint of speeding up the cultivated land circulation.

Key words: cultivated land, land-use intensification, spatial pattern, factors, China