Coupling analysis of greenhouse-led farmland transition and rural transformation development in China’s traditional farming area: A case of Qingzhou City

Abstract

The farmland transition is a theoretical summary of the morphological change of farmland in the context of the rural man–land interrelations evolution. The coupling mechanism between the farmland transition and rural transformation development (RTD) in China’s traditional farming area is good for optimizing urban–rural relations and reconstructing rural development paths. This paper takes the greenhouse-led farmland transition (GFT) as the starting point and attempts to construct a coupled conceptual model between farmland transition and RTD. Further, Qingzhou City is used as a case study to analyze the process of GFT from the county and village scales, and the coupling relationship between farmland transition and RTD is analyzed. The research shows that the coupling relationship between farmland use morphology and rural development status presents types at different stages, which become an important window to track the change mechanism of rural man–land relationship. The GFT has changed the rural production system and urban–rural relations in Qingzhou City. The correlation coefficient between the proportion of greenhouse land area in the available farmland area and the proportion of rural labor force outflow was −0.579. Since 1995, the coupling relationship between GFT and RTD of Nanxiaowang Village in Qingzhou City has shown the characteristic four stages: “traditional grain production stage” ― “mixed development stage of grain production and greenhouse cultivation” ― “modern high efficiency agricultural production stage” ― “market-oriented comprehensive agricultural development stage”. This study puts forward the conceptual framework of the coupling mechanism of farmland transition and RTD, and further validates the stage succession process of the coupling relationship based on typical case studies at different scales. In addition, the major problems existing in the current coupling relationship between GFT and RTD are further summarized. The land use policy based on the coupling relationship between land use transition and rural development is proposed to further promote the orderly reconstruction of the villages.