Comparative analysis of influence factors on arable land use intensity at farm household level: A case study comparing Suyu District of Suqian City and Taixing City, Jiangsu Province, China

Using data from the farm household survey conducted in 2009,arable land use intensity(ALUI)and its influence factors at farm household level were investigated by the Tobit model.Suyu District of Suqian City and Taixing City of Jiansu Province,China were chosen as the regions for comparison.The results show that:1)On the average, the ALUI,labor intensity,yield-increasing input,and labor-saving input are 15 238.14 yuan(RMB)/ha,192 d/ha, 7233.01 yuan/ha,and 2451.32 yuan/ha in the less economically developed Suyu District,and 13 020.65 yuan/ha,181 d/ha,5871.82 yuan/ha,and 2625.97 yuan/ha in more economically developed Taixing City.The figures indicate that Suyu District has higher ALUI and labor intensity input but lower labor-saving input.2)Comparing all the influence factors,the total arable land area in available and average plot size have bigger effects on arable land intensive use;to a small degree,family′s non-farm income affects labor intensity,yield-increasing input,and labor-saving input;the yield-increasing input decreases significantly when the householder has higher education attainment;the commercialization rates of agricultural products and the planting proportion of cash crops both have unstable influence on ALUI; the share of arable land rented in has few impacts on labor intensity,yield-increasing input,and labor-saving input. 3)There are no differences found in the internal impact mechanism of influence factors on the arable land intensive use behaviors of farm households.However,there are conspicuous disparities in the impact degrees and statistical significance based on varying economic levels.4)Using the results as bases,this study proposes that the government should implement land management and agricultural policies according to local condition.And these policies should decrease land fragmentation to promote scale management of land and arable land use intensification.     

Livelihood Diversification of Farm Households and Its Impact on Cultivated Land Utilization in Agro-pastoral Ecologically-vulnerable Areas in the Northern China

The relationship between livelihood diversification of farm households and cultivated land utilization has become a core research topic related to global environmental change. Agro-pastoral ecologically-vulnerable areas face challenges such as insufficient ecosystem conservation, low agricultural production, and weak economies. In this study, 215 farm households from Zhengxiangbai Banner, Taibus Banner, and Duolun County of Inner Mongolia were surveyed. The sustainable livelihoods framework of the United Kingdom(UK) Department for International Development(DFID) was used to measure the livelihood capital of these farm households. A one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) was applied to examine the differences in the livelihood capital of different types households, and a correlation analysis was applied to analyze its impact on cultivated land utilization. Results showed that households with non-farming activities accounted for 64.7% of the total surveyed households, and non-farming employment was becoming more prevalent. Physical and financial capital was the driving factors for livelihood diversity. Each livelihood capital had key factors that affected household farmland use behaviors, such as the age of householder, the labor ratio, proportion of income, farmland scale, number of machines, and these had a significantly positive or negative influence on farmland use. Full-time farming households were more likely to transfer the land into cultivation and invest more labor, while non-farming households with high income were likely to transfer farmland out and invest more money to develop efficient farming or improve the employment skills. The results of this study suggest that policymakers need to fully consider livelihood changes of local households. It is effective to strengthen labor training, create farmland market and improve the efficiency of farmland utilization. We hope to achieve a win-win scenario to improve local economies and ecosystem conservation.     

Geographical differences and influencing factors of rural energy consumption in Southwest mountain areas in China: A case study of Zhaotong City

China is a mountainous country,and Southwest mountain areas cover the most mountain areas in China and have the most serious problems.Taking Zhaotong city as the study area,based on 902 rural household questionnaires of 11 villages in 2 counties and Tobit model,this paper analyzes the geographical differences and influencing factors of energy consumption for non-production purposes of rural households living in different terrain conditions.This research finds that:(1) Coal takes up the main part of energy consumption in valley areas and coal consumption is mainly affected by per capita cultivated land area,household income,proportion of rural household energy expenditure in total expenditure,coal price,and family population size.Firewood takes up the main part of energy consumption in high mountain areas and firewood consumption is mainly affected by per capita firewood forest area,distance to purchase coal,household income,electricity price,and coal price.(2) Only when the distance is greater than 20 kilometers,that is the average distance of rural households living in middle mountain areas(1,600m~1,800m) to purchase coal,the transportation condition has a significant impact on coal consumption.(3) In high mountain areas,prices of coal and electricity are the main factors influencing energy consumption choice of rural households.Too high prices of coal and electricity would to some extent lead rural households to choose firewood as the main energy consumption type.Compared to coal,rural households prefer to choose electricity.     

Land-use change and socio-economic driving forces of rural settlement in China from 1996 to 2005

While urbanization has accelerated, the rural population in China has started decreasing in recent years. However, the expan- sion of rural settlement has not been sufficiently curbed. The questions of why this has happened and who has driven the land-use change （LUC） of rural settlement in China have aroused great interests among researchers. In this paper, it is suggested that population is not always a positive driving force for the LUC of rural settlement in China. Furthermore, socio-economic driving forces other than urbanization, population and industrialization are analyzed. On a national scale, the major driving forces are the per-capita rural housing area and the cultivated land area. On a regional scale, the main driving forces in the eastern China are the house-building capacity of rural households and the per-capita rural housing area; while in the central China, the main driving forces are rural housing investment, the proportion of primary industry employees in the rural working population, and the cultivated land area. For the western China, the main driving forces are rural register population and cultivated land area.     

Modeling patch characteristics of farmland loss for site assessment in urban fringe of Beijing, China

Farmland protection and delimitation in the urban fringe considers not only natural factors but also the spatial characters and site factors. Taking Daxing District, Beijing in China as a case study, this paper used landscape ecology and power-law methods to analyze and evaluate farmland loss during the period of 2004-2007 based on the interpretation results of SPOT5 remote sensing images in 2004 and 2007. At the patch level, we selected four landscape indices, namely patch size, shape index, the nearest neighbor distance between farmland and construction land (including residential land and other construction land), and cropping type, to evaluate the risk of farmland loss and establish a farmland site analysis indicator system. The results showed that patch size and shape index have a significant positive correlation with farmland loss, whereas the distance to construction land has a clear negative correlation with farmland loss. As regards cropping type, fallow farmland is much easier for non-agricultural use than cultivated farmland. The relative transition ratio among vegetable land, fallow farmland and cultivated farmland is 1︰5.6︰1. The patch size of lost farmland follows a power-law distribution, indicating that not only small parcels but also large parcels can be lost. Patch size less than 4 ha or more than 15 ha is in high loss risk, between 4 ha and 10 ha in medium loss risk, and larger than 10 ha and less than 15 ha in low risk. Farmland with a more regular shape has a higher likelihood of loss. Patch shape index less than 2.0 is in high loss risk, between 2.0 and 3.0 in medium loss risk, and larger than 3.0 in low risk. Construction land has a varying impact on farmland loss, the residential land effected distance is 1000 m, and that of the other construction land is 2000 m. This analysis showed the relationships between site factors and farmland loss, and the analysis framework can provide support and reference for farmland protection and delimitation of prime farmland in China.     

Changes in Agricultural System as Farmers Adapt to Economic-Social and Climatic Changes in the Min Upriver Rural Areas in Western Sichuan,Southwestern China

Rapid economic growth in China has brought about great economic-social changes in rural areas, having considerable impact on the society in economy and environment. With a per capita possession of about 0.08 ha of cropland, Chinese farmers in rural areas adopt various ways in response to these changes in a bit to maintain their livelihood, wherein the agricultural system is facing one more options possible. To understand how rural communities have used different mechanisms to adapt to the economic and natural changes, we joined a survey in dry valleys of the Min upriver area under Maoxian county of western Sichuan province, southwestern China and visited the local people. Changes in the main crop cultivation have shown up an important means to keep up their household income. Farm households start seeking economic growth through diversified cultivating of cereal and economic crops in five lines, namely cereal, apple monoculture, apple and vegetables, plum and vegetables, mixed fruits and vegetables. These new lines mirror farmers’ flexibility to cope with today’s economic-social and climatic changes. The farming operation has changed all the more from a subsistence on grain to special agricultural products. Economic reforms in the early 1980 s motivated theprogress first in conversion of production from grain to fruits, and the desire to increase family income turned out to be an impetus for the subsequent events. At present, more farmers moving out of the rural areas, uneasy availability of labor force, increased opportunity cost of labors and their wages, increased farm size, and the urgent demand for the agricultural labor force, all these combine into the trend of the agricultural system of China on facing further economic-social reforms and reconstruction of the countryside across China.     

宅基地流转农户行为影响因素的实证研究——基于广东省19个县市34个行政村的抽样调查

宅基地流转是提高农村宅基地资源有效配置的途径之一.以广东省为例,在对19个县(市、区)34个行政村544户农户抽样调查的基础上,运用 Logistic 回归模型,定量分析广东省不同区域类别下农户宅基地流转的主要影响因素及其影响程度.研究表明:广东省省域59.33%的农户发生宅基地流转,而珠江三角洲地区和粤东地区的比例分别高达67.42%和62.5%,粤西地区和粤北地区的比例分别为59.26%和43.04%;不同区域类别下农户宅基地流转的主要影响因素有明显差异;农户家庭年纯收入和宅基地面积因子是影响广东省宅基地流转的最重要因素.针对研究结果,提出了相应促进宅基地资源更有效配置的政策建议     

Establishment of rural housing land standard in China

On the basis of rural household survey in 12 provinces of China in 2005,this research built an econometrical model to find the area standard for rural housing land.This standard is expected to facilitate rural housing land administration,efficient and intensive housing land use and policy making.This research concludes:1) according to the household survey data,the average area for rural housing land in China is about 235.26 m 2,and the rural housing land mainly includes unused land(42.89%) and house construction land(37.76%) with the average floor-area ratio of 0.42;2) the indexes in the standard concern the factors such as location,landform,house form,household population and cultivated land area per farmer,which all have significant effects on rural housing land use;3) the reasonable area for rural housing land may be 150 m 2 in average before 2020,and the referential standards in different provinces are 120 m 2,130 m 2,140m 2,150 m 2,160 m 2,170 m 2,190 m 2,200 m 2,210 m 2,220 m 2,230 m 2 and 250 m 2 respectively;and 4) if there are less than two persons or more than five persons in a family,these standards need to be decreased or increased by 7%.When the cultivated land area per farmer is lower than the provincial average,the standards have to reduce by 3.5%.     

Geography and Rural Household Income： A Village Level Study in Henan Province, China

This study uses the data from a sample survey conducted in April 2007 on 1 251 rural households in 11 villages of Henan Province, the largest less developed agricultural province in China, to examine how geography affects rural household income (RHI). The quantitative analysis indicates following results. 1) The significance of the traditional geographical factors reduces as RHI rank increases. 2) The landform does not affect the RHI significantly. The per capita income of rural household in a plain area is lower than that in a mountainous area. And 3) the capital endowment and status of non-farm economic activities contribute to the increase of RHI. But the probability and intensity of non-farm economic activities of rural households in urban outskirts villages are higher than that in non-urban outskirts villages. Based on the results, the paper further concludes that geography still plays a significant role in rural development, but it is changing over time. The agricultural resources (such as per capita arable land) significantly affect RHI with the relatively lower income level, while the geographical location shows a more significant impact on RHI with the relatively high income level. Along with economic development, the proximity replaces the traditional geographical factors such as landform and physical resources as the major determining factor in RHI.     

Impact of labor transfer on agricultural land use conversion at rural household level based on Logit model

Since land and labor force are primary resources to be used and controlled by rural households, the allocation of labor forces will influence land uses, and further lead to land use conversion. The present study used the Binary Logit model to investigate the influence of labor force transfer, characteristics of rural households, location, and land market on agricultural land use conversion at rural household level. This study was conducted based on 329 valid questionnaires, which were obtained in Changshu, Rudong, and Tongshan counties, respectively representing the southern, middle and northern areas of Jiangsu Province. The results showed that land market participation, location, zonal difference and labor transfer had strong influences on agricultural land use conversion. The participation of land market had a strong positive effect on land use conversion, especially for the farmland converted to the fishpond. The nearer to the county seat, the more conversion of land use occurred. Particularly, the labor force transfer caused by wage employment decreased this conversion probability, while the labor transfer caused by self-employment led to more conversion; and the increasing of income from labor transfer increased the conversion. Moreover, land use conversions demonstrated zonal difference, which were more in Rudong and Changshu counties than in Tongshan County, and the factors influencing this conversion were different in the three regions.     

Current situation and influencing factors of pluriactivity in mountainous and hilly rural areas of Sichuan province, China

In this study,the current situation of pluriactivity in mountainous and hilly rural areas of Sichuan province was analyzed using representative sample survey data and natural factor data calculated based on 30 m-resolution DEM and GIS.Moreover,using logistic regression model,a quantitative analysis was conducted on factors influencing pluriactivity in terms of individuals,households,communities and natural environmental conditions.The results showed that,(1) only 17.77% of rural laborers in mountainous and hilly areas of Sichuan province were engaged in pluriactivity.Geographically,pluriactivity was mainly chosen according to the "proximity principle",and was concentrated in construction and service industries;(2) the following factors have a significant influence on whether rural laborers in hilly areas engage in pluriactivity:gender,number of years of education,marriage,number of laborers and time to towns.Those with little influence include:age,health,family size,arable land per capita and per capita income,whether there are elderly people over 75 years and children less than 3 years.According to the main factors affecting pluriactivity,the government should enhance vocational skills training for rural laborers in mountainous and hilly areas,especially for female laborers,further improve transport accessibility and encourage rural laborers,especially female laborers to move into pluriactivity to increase the income of farm households.     

Spatial patterns of farmland abandonment and its impact factors in the central Three Gorges Reservoir Area

The severe farmland abandonment phenomena in China have tremendously decreased the farmland usage efficiency and caused a series of profound ecological and social outcomes. The complexity of farmland abandonment necessitates a systematic research on its patterns and impact factors to underpin the dynamics of problem as well as potential solutions. This paper took Wanzhou district in the central part of Three Gorges Reservoir Area as an example to study the spatial distribution patterns of abandoned farmland at three scales, i.e., town, village, and plot, and analyzed the influence from labor transfer and farmland circulation. We conducted a survey on the distribution patterns of abandoned farmland via questionnaires at town and village scales, together with the modeling and interpretation of high-resolution aerial images taken by unmanned aerial vehicles at plot scale. Our research discloses a strong relationship between the distribution of abandoned farmland and the distance from population center at different scales. At either town or village scale, the abandonment proportion was recognized the highest in mid-distance areas and lowest in close-distance areas, and the per capita area of abandoned farmland increased with the distance to downtown or township. At plot scale, abandonment proportion presented exponential growth with the distance to village center, whereas the abandoned farmland was mainly distributed in the areas with distance above 500 m from the village center. Moreover, we noticed that labor transfer and farmland circulation are two important factors that influence farmland abandonment. Labor's outbound transfer distance has a positive linkage with the possibility of farmland abandonment. Finally, it is recommended that development and adoption of corresponding policies on local urbanization and farmland circulation will facilitate to alleviate farmland abandonment.     

THE CHANGING TENDENCY OF LAND RESOURCES AND THE COUNTERMEASURES IN HAINAN PROVINCE IN 2000

Hainan Provine, with an land area of 34,170 km2, is the largest economic district for external development in China. With the further deepening of reform and openning up, some new problems of land resource exploitation and use have arisen. The changing tendency of land use is estimated as follows: Land use in economic exploitation, city development and traffic will be increased rapidly; hydraulic construction will occupy a part of land; the use of wasteland is increasing; and the total farmland and per capital farmland will decrease continously. In 2000, the occupied land should be controlled in 5 million mu (1 mu=1/ 15 ha), in which farmland is 160,000 mu. The farmland should be maintained in 6.5 million mu. Some measures to implement the strategy and object of land use are put forward: enhancing land management and administration; excuting land policy and making land management mechanism active; enhancing the efficiency of land use; and control the growth of population strictly.     

SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION OF LAND TRANSFER ——Case Study of Shanghai, Nanjing and Taizhou in Changjiang River Delta

1INTRODUCTIONIt is one of important issues in the field of geographical science to analyze the spatial differentiation of regional phenomenon. The research on spatial differentiation can be cast back to Thunen's agricultural location theory. Af- terwards, many scholars developed the theory and paid moreattentiontothelawandformingmechanismofspa- tial differentiation of some phenomena including inhabi- tation structure, population variation, environmental ele- ments, rural development, and …     

Analyzing Influencing Factors of Rural Poverty in Typical Poverty Areas of Hainan Province: A Case Study of Lingao County

Rural poverty and poverty reduction are not only the focal issues that have attracted worldwide attention, but also the vital issues on people’s livelihood that has attached great importance and aimed to be solved by the central and local governments of China. Based on the survey data of 354 farming households, this paper, taking the national poverty county of Lingao County, Hainan Province for an example, examined the characteristics of rural poverty of the county. Moreover, this paper established the spatial lag model (SLM) from five dimensions, namely, status of the household head, household structure, health status, income composition and traffic accessibility, to analyze the main influencing factors of rural poverty according to the values of Moran’s I and the diagnosis of spatial dependence of the OLS model. It is found that the poor farming households gathered mainly in five towns in the north and southwest of the county, and the rural poverty have the characteristics of low educational level of the heads, more minor children, high population of farming peasants, high incidence of disease and low proportion of household wage-equivalent income. The results also showed that the variables such as the number of minor children, the number of migrant worker, the number of farming peasants and the proportion of wage-equivalent income have significant effectiveness on rural poverty, while the status of the household head, health status and traffic accessibility have little influence. It is an important way to realize the goal of poverty alleviation by controlling the number of farmers’ fertility, strengthening the vocational skills training of farmers, vigorously developing specialization and large-scale agriculture and increasing the employment opportunities of farmers.     

Influences of labor migration on rural household land transfer: A case study of Sichuan Province,China

The influence of labor migration on rural household land transfer has been hotly debated in academic circles, which focuses on whether part-time employment leads to land transfer. Using survey data on rural households in the Sichuan Province, and applying the theoretical framework of new economics of labor migration, this study explores the influences of labor migration on the direction and scale of land transfer from the perspective of rural household structure. The results indicate that: 1) the quantity of laborers has significant influence on the direction and scale of land transfer. The larger the on-farm labor variable (Labor), the lesser the possibility that land will be rented-out and the amount of land rented out will also be smaller. In addition, there is a greater probability that land will be rented-in and the amount of land rented-in will be greater. 2) The greater the ratio of off-farm laborers to rural household laborers (Off-farm) the greater the possibility that land will be rented-out. In addition the higher the ratio of on-farm laborers to the total household laborers (On-farm), the larger the possibility that land will be rented-in. Meanwhile, if the household has individuals at the age of 64 or older (Old) who are engaged in agriculture, there is a smaller possibility that land will be rented-out. 3) the ratio of part-time laborers to rural household laborers (Pluriactivity) have significant inverse U-shaped influences on the rent-in of land as well as the amount of land rented-in. The inflection points are 33.27% and 14.10%, respectively. Such findings confirm the significance of this study in better understanding the influence of labor migration on rural household land transfer.     

LAND USE CHANGE AND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC DRIVING FORCES UNDER STRESS OF PROJECT IN OLD RESERVOIR AREA —— Case Study of Linshui Reservoir Area of Dahonghe Reservoir in Sichuan Province

The old reservoir areas built in 1950s- 1970s left behind many socio-economic problems, because of the administrative backward migration and little migration fund, and all these problems would be tied to land. Based on interviewing with peasant households, combining land use survey and socio-economic statistical index, this paper analyzed land use change and its corresponding driving forces in Linshui reservoir area of Dahonghe Reservoir. Results showed that land use change in the reservoir area was mainly embodied on low-lying land submergence and migration requisition land. The former changed the land use patterns, and the latter mainly reconstructed original land property and made land over-fragmented. Cultivated land per capita was 0.041ha in this area, below the cordon of cultivated land per capita enacted by FAO. Currently, there were still 30.25% of peasant households being short of grain in trimester of one year, and there were 35.27% of people living under the poverty line. The conditions of eco-environmerit in Linshui Reservoir Area were worse, and healthy and sub-healthy eco-environment accounted for less proportion, composed of green belt around the reservoir area and paddy field ecosystem, and economic forest and orchard ecosystem, respectively. The stress of the reservoir project was macroscopic background to analyze the driving factors of land use change, and real underlying diving factor of the land use change in the area was the change of cultural landscape under the stress of reservoir project. The rapid increase of population was the key factor to induce the change of man-land relationship in the reservoir area, the low level of rural economy was the crucial factor to decide how migrants input for production, and the belief of migrants, influencing the land use patterns in a certain extent, was the inducing factor to keep land use stable. The low-lying submergence and infrastructure construction accompanied the reservoir project were leading factors driving land use change in the area, while changes in land use patterns, after the reservoir being built, were the responses of peasant households＇ behaviors to land use change.     

Non-coordination in China＇s Urbanization： Assessment and Affecting Factors

Urbanization is a comprehensive concept, a trinity process that population urbanization, economic urbanization and space urbanization, is based on the interactions and mutual influences among the in which, people are the central and leading players in this process, while economic activities serve as the driving force and space is the carrier-the physical or material setting as well as the product. So the coordination among these processes is crucial for a country or region＇s sustainable development. China is experiencing rapid growth of cities and a surge in urban population, with the basic national condition of many people and little land, which calls for a systematic study of the issue of coordinated urbanization from theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives. Based on the concept of urbanization and non-coordination of urbanization, this article built a quantitative method to identify and evaluate the urbanization and non-coordination of urbanization, and made an empirical analysis in China between 2000 and 2008. The results show that the non-coordination overall level of China＇s urbanization declined during the study period, because population urbanization, economic urbanization, and space urbanization exhibited different trajectories of change. This study also reveals that performance assessment system, household registration system, and urban land expropriation system, etc., are the main affecting factors. At the end, we put forward some suggestions to achieve sustainable development of China＇s urbanization from the aspects of improving the local government＇s obiective function, imolementing the urban plalming svstem, enforcing public particination asnects and so on.     

Road impacts on spatial patterns of land use and landscape fragmentation in three parallel rivers region, Yunnan Province, China

The structure and function of network is a central issue in landscape ecology.Road networks with hierarchical structure are crucial for understanding landscape dynamics.In this study,we compared the distribution of national road,provincial road,county road and rural road in the Three Parallel Rivers Region(TPRR)in Yunnan Province of China,and estimated the effect of roads(and other factors)on the spatial patterns of land use and land cover with logistic regression.In addition,we analyzed the land use and land cover change(LUCC)and landscape fragmentation in 1989–2005 along a buffer zone of the primary traffic corridor,national road G214.The results showed that,county and rural roads had much higher percentage of length extending into more natural habitats at higher elevation and steeper slope,compared with the higher level roads in this region.While the distributions of natural land cover types were dominated by environmental factors,human land use types i.e.,building land and farmland types were significantly related with roads,linking more closely with lower level roads.The LUCC dynamics(1989–2005)of the G214 buffer zone showed a general trend of land transformation from conifer forests and valley arid shrubs to building land and farmland,and from ice and snow to alpine shrubs and forests.With the length of G214 unchanged during the time,the overall landscape pattern changed little in the buffer zone,but habitat fragmentation and area decrease had occurred for the natural vegetation types,in contrast to patch mergence and expansion of human land use types,and landscape fragmentation was intensified above 2500 m a.s.l.but declined below the elevation.The results indicated the dynamics of landscape composition and patch type level distribution in spite of the stability of the overall landscape pattern,and implied the potential role of roads,especially the low level roads on landscape changes.