Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2015, Vol. 70 ›› Issue (4): 582-590.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201504006

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial change of China's grain production based on geographical division of natural factors during 1990-2010

Haiya XU1,2(), Huiyi ZHU1()   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2014-11-11 Revised:2015-01-28 Online:2015-04-20 Published:2015-04-20
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41171087

Abstract:

The spatial pattern of grain production in China has changed remarkably under the background of global change, industrialization and urbanization over the past 20 years. This change has great impacts on grain supply and grain market, efficiency of agricultural resources, disaster risk of agricultural production on national scale, and ecological security on regional scale as well. Current research focused on the spatial change of China's grain production based on three schemes of geographical division including North and South China division, three economic regions, and eight grain-producing bases. These schemes reflected geographical features of grain production in China. In this paper, location quotients of grain production and yield data of 2344 counties were used to analyze variations of grain production in geographical regions defined by disparity of annual precipitation, effective temperature, and landforms. The results indicated that the grain production in all the geographical regions presented an increasing trend during the period 1990-2010. Due to the spatial disparity of regional growth rate, the centre of grain production in China moved northward: from the regions with precipitation over 800 mm to those with precipitation between 400 mm and 800 mm; from subtropical zone to mid-temperate zone and warm-temperate zone; and gradually concentrated in flat plains. The results implied that the change of spatial patterns of China's grain production went against the efficient use of water and heat resources, but it was beneficial to the application of agricultural machines and the improvement of labor productivity. Given the change trends of spatial pattern of grain production, background of climate change, and the national aim of grain security, China should enhance its ability to improve efficiency of water resources and reduce the risk of natural disasters.

Key words: grain production, spatial pattern, geographical division, China