Abstract
China’s grain production has transformed from absolute shortage to a current structural oversupply. High-intensity production introduced further challenges for the eco-environment, smallholder livelihood, and the man-land interrelationship. Driven by urban-rural transformation, research on food security patterns and grain production has expanded into a new field. To analyze the challenges and required countermeasures for China’s grain production system (GPS), this study constructed a theoretical GPS framework based on space resilience. Firstly, a new GPS concept was proposed and a functional system was established for protecting the regional food security, thus guaranteeing smallholder livelihood, stabilizing urban-rural transformation, and sustaining the eco-environment in terms of economic, social, and ecological attributes of the GPS. Secondly, based on a cross-scale interaction analysis that varied from a smallholder scale to a global scale, the systematic crisis of the GPS was analyzed. Thirdly, a cross-scale analytic framework of the GPS was formed from the perspective of spatial resilience, integrating both inner and external disturbance factors of the GPS. Both spatial heterogeneity and connectivity of internal and external disturbance factors are important contents of system space resilience. Finally, the hierarchy of spatial resilience of GPS became clear. The transformation of labor force and the land use transition form key thresholds of the GPS. In summary: based on protecting the basic functions of the GPS, the cross-scale effect of systematic disturbance factors and relevant countermeasures for spatial resilience are effectively influenced by the coordination of the interests of multiple stakeholders; spatial resilience is an effective analytical tool for GPS regulation, providing a reference for revealing the inherent mechanism and functional evolution of the GPS in the process of urban-rural transformation.
Highlights
The strong contrast between the large population and limited available land resources creates a significant challenge for China’s food security [1,2]
Based on an analysis of spatial heterogeneity and connectivity of internal and external disturbance factors, the spatial resilience of the grain production system (GPS) was constructed under the cross-scale interaction of disturbance factors
To guarantee the basic function of the GPS as the criterion, the spatial resilience optimization strategy has been discussed with cross-scale effect and under the coordination mechanism of multi-agent stakeholders
Summary
The strong contrast between the large population and limited available land resources creates a significant challenge for China’s food security [1,2]. We can draw the conclusion that China’s grain production conditions offer profound potential for both transformation and crisis whether analyzed from the perspective of a comparison between the domestic and international environments, the transition and evolution patterns of inner key elements [11,42], or the opinion divergence regarding the future mode of development of China’s grain production modes between different scholars. An effective analysis of the challenges and opportunities of China’s grain production activities will create conditions that are supportive for safeguarding food security and for coordinating the urban and rural development during the new period. The introduction of spatially resilient thinking into the research field of agricultural production provides a useful reference for the further deepening of the research methods of human geography, especially for the research of modern agricultural geography
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