Cultivated land quality improvement to promote revitalization of sandy rural areas along the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi Province, China

Abstract

The sandy area along the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi Province of China, is located in the transition zone between the Maowusu Desert and the loess hills and gullies region, with a vast territory and large per capita of cultivated agricultural land. However, the cultivated land quality is generally poor due to the local natural conditions. It is of practical significance to find ways to improve the quality of agricultural land and put forward targeted measures for its improvement. Through the analysis of farmland gradation results in the study area, we calculated an improvement potential index with a model to determine the primary limiting factors of agricultural land quality in the study area. The results indicate that both singe-factor and combined-factor limitations exist in the region. The single-factor limiting types include soil thickness, organic content, irrigation, salinization, etc., while the combined-factor limiting types include the combinations of the irrigation water source and irrigation firm probability, soil structure and organic matter, soil thickness and soil texture, and so on. Through the analysis of the potential index model results, we determined the main limiting factors in agricultural production, which vary spatially throughout the region, and suggested targeted measures to improve the cultivated land quality. These measures will then promote revitalization of sandy rural areas along the great wall in northern Shaanxi Province, China.