Abstract
Land consolidation (LC) is an important measure taken to increase the quantity and productivity of farmland while reducing land fragmentation and ensuring food security. However, long-term land consolidation project (LCP) practices are rarely analyzed to assess the effectiveness for achieving current policy objectives of LC in China. Taking the practices of LCPs in Jiangsu Province from 2001 to 2017 as a case study, we used the spatial self-related analysis, the consistency analysis, and the redundant analysis (RDA), and found that the construction scale and the investment amount of LC in Jiangsu Province displayed varying trends, and that the newly increased farmland rate is clearly divided into three stages and gradually decreases. The newly increased farmland area, the investment funds, and reserved land resources for farmlands are not spatially synchronized in Jiangsu Province. Only the positive relationship between the LC rate and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) growth rate continue to rise. The earlier stage of land consolidation projects (LCPs)’s practices is mainly affected by natural and social factors, and the late stage is mainly affected by economic and strategic factors. Finally, a new implementation scheme framework of LC planning has been proposed. This framework provides reference for top-level design, planning, and management of LC policies at the national level in China and other developing countries.
Highlights
Since 1978, China’s economy has substantially grown after a huge sacrifice of resources and environment [1,2,3], including the loss of high quality farmlands, the contamination of soil and water, and the degradation of different ecological systems
There were 1064 land consolidation project (LCP) implemented in Jiangsu Province from 2001 to 2017
An Land consolidation (LC) fund was usually invested in earthwork leveling and water conservancy supplementary facility projects
Summary
Since 1978, China’s economy has substantially grown after a huge sacrifice of resources and environment [1,2,3], including the loss of high quality farmlands, the contamination of soil and water, and the degradation of different ecological systems. China has a population of 1400 million [2]. The per capita farmland area is only 0.09 hectares [1]. For this reason, China’s Central Government has paid great attention to farmland protection [4]. Since 1986, “extremely cherishing and reasonably utilizing each inch of land and substantially protecting farmland” has been one of the basic state policies [2].
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