Research on compensation standards for cultivated land protection based on a value-added benefit model in Xinjiang, China

The significant positive externality of cultivated land ecosystem services leads to the low comparative benefit of cultivated land utilization and then causes practical problems such as the abandonment and non-agriculturalization of the cultivated land, which poses a threat to China’s food security. The existing protection system only focuses on the quantity requirement and food production service of cultivated land and ignores the multi-function of cultivated land as an ecosystem, resulting in insufficient incentives and poor effect. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the protection’s economic compensation standard by adding the cultivated land’s ecosystem service value in order to comprehensively assess cultivated land resources and correct for externalities. Taking the area around Hangzhou Bay, where the contradiction between cultivated land protection and economic development is prominent, as an example, the values of six typical cultivated land ecosystem services in 2016 was constructed and calculated, including food production, carbon sequestration and oxygen production, water conservation, soil conservation, biodiversity maintenance, and cultural leisure. Combined with ecosystem services’ values and the quality index, we finally determined the new county-level compensation standard of cultivated land protection in the Hangzhou Bay area. The results show that the value of cultivated land ecosystem services present obvious regional disparities, meaning that there exist significant differences in the sustainable use capacity of cultivated land and the necessity of establishing grading compensation standards in the region. Finally, we analyze the rationality and innovation of the new compensation standard model as well as its role in the protection of cultivated land and look forward to promoting the sustainable use of cultivated land through these new incentives.

Exploring farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for cultivated land protection and its influencing factors is key to promoting their enthusiasm for participating in cultivated land pollution governance. However, existing studies often overlook the differences in farmers’ preference for different levels of cultivated land attributes and the issue of intertemporal choice in farmers’ WTP, thus lowering the effectiveness of cultivated land protection policies. Using survey data from 646 small farmers in Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces of China, this study empirically analyzes the impact of time preference on farmers’ WTP for cultivated land attribute levels by utilizing the choice experiment method, measures the relative importance of different cultivated land attributes and attribute levels to farmers, and calculates farmers’ WTP for different cultivated land attribute levels. The results revealed that farmers are generally reluctant to pay for cultivated land protection. Time preference affects farmers’ WTP for different levels of cultivated land attributes, with future-biased preference increasing farmers’ WTP and present-biased preference inhibiting it. Furthermore, for farmers, the relative importance of cultivated land attributes is in the order of cultivated land quality, cultivated land surrounding landscape and ecological environment, cultivated land social security function, and cultivated land area. The most crucial cultivated land attribute level is the improved cultivated land quality, with an average WTP of 3290.625 CNY per hectare (approximately 459.117 USD). In contrast, the least important cultivated land attribute level is the unchanged cultivated land area, with an average WTP of 1001.250 CNY per hectare (approximately 139.697 USD). The economic benefits of cultivated land protection in the sampled provinces can reach 353.892 million CNY per year (approximately 49.376 million USD) annually, which is calculated based on vegetable planting area. Our results suggest that the government should diversify farmers’ sources of income while increasing the amount of income, thereby reducing barriers to farmers’ payment. Simultaneously, farmers’ time preferences should be considered to guide them toward expecting long-term benefits and encouraging their active participation in cultivated land pollution governance. Moreover, cultivated land protection policies should match the preference of farmers for cultivated land attributes and attribute levels, and a limited fiscal fund should be allocated to the cultivated land attributes (i.e., cultivated land quality) and attribute levels (i.e., improved cultivated land quality) preferred by farmers to improve policy efficiency. This study highlights the importance of encouraging farmers to actively participate in cultivated land pollution governance and improving the allocation efficiency of the government’s cultivated land protection fund.

Since 2000, the Yangtze River Delta region has undergone a period of rapid urbanization in China. A large area of cultivated land has been converted into construction land, which greatly affects food security. The decrease in cultivated land caused by urbanization is also very serious in Jiangsu Province, one of the main grain-producing areas in the Yangtze River Delta region. Based on the remote sensing data of Jiangsu Province in 2000, 2010 and 2020, this paper analyzes the land use changes occurring in 13 regional cities in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2020 by using the transfer matrix. Spatial and temporal geographical weighted regression models were used to analyze the differences in the economic, social and policy impacts of land use change across the province. The results show that the cultivated land area is decreasing, and the closer to the urban center, the faster the decrease in cultivated land in Jiangsu Province. Cultivated land was mainly transferred out to construction land, waters and woodlands. The human factors affecting the change in cultivated land area in the province can be divided into a population growth factor, economic development factor, rural development factor and land policy factor. Among them, population growth and economic development had a negative effect on cultivated land protection, while improvements in the agricultural production level and cultivated land protection policy had a positive effect on cultivated land protection. According to the analysis of spatial-temporal heterogeneity of cultivated land area change, the growing urbanization rate had the greatest impact on the cultivated land area in Southern Jiangsu, and the impact of real estate development on cultivated land has been reduced in small cities. The conclusion of this paper has important policy implications for promoting cultivated land protection and ensuring food security.

The ecological compensation of cultivated land could also be called paying for the ecological service of cultivated land. It means that based on comprehensive consideration of the cost of the protection of the cultivated land and the value of the ecological service, the benefited area would implement the ecological compensation to the damaged area to motivate the actors of the protection behavior to protect the cultivated land better. A fair and reasonable cultivated land ecological compensation mechanism is critical in motivating cultivated land protection subjects’ active participation in cultivated land protection. However, most of the currently measured cultivated land ecological compensation standards are only determined from the perspective of a single interest, ignoring the participation and negotiation of cultivated land protection stakeholders, resulting in insufficient pertinence, low compensation standards, and low compensation efficiency. Therefore, by introducing a market mechanism, this study constructs a non-cooperative bargaining model and solves three stages of the game equilibrium solution under the condition of comprehensive consideration of interests of farmland ecosystem service providers and consumers. In this study, the Yangtze River Economic Belt is taken as the research area to provide empirical analysis of a cultivated land ecological game compensation standard between the subject and object of cultivated land ecological compensation in the area. The study found that, under the ecological compensation standard for cultivated land determined by the bargaining game, the cultivated land ecological compensation subject and object in the area meets the “KaldorHicks” resource allocation criterion, and the standard can take into account the interests of both parties. Meanwhile, the river basin horizontal ecological compensation quota determined by the game standard will neither cause a financial dilemma in the payment area due to the excessive compensation quota, nor financial “windfall gain” in the compensated area due to ecological finance transfer of cultivated land. The cultivated land ecological compensation standard based on the game between the two parties is reasonable and accurate for the cultivated land ecological compensation object, which not only functions as an economic incentive, but maintains long-term effectiveness of policy. Therefore, it is necessary to actively promote the determination of ecological compensation standards based on negotiation means, and to establish a sustainable ecological protection compensation mechanism involving government predomination, social engagement, and market-oriented operations, to drive marketization of cultivated land ecological compensation.

Institutional transition and implementation path for cultivated land protection in highly urbanized regions: A case study of Shenzhen, China

As one of the 13 major grain-producing areas in China, Anhui Province undertakes the dual tasks of ensuring national food security and promoting regional economic development. At present, under the background of rapid urbanization and increasing pressure on farmland protection, establishing a scientific and effective economic compensation mechanism for farmland protection has become a key path to coordinate food security, ecological security and farmers' interests. Taking Anhui Province as the research object, this paper systematically sorts out the functional positioning, existing problems and operation logic of the compensation mechanism for farmland protection in major grain-producing areas through literature analysis, field research and case comparison based on the theory of farmland protection externalities and stakeholder theory. The study found that farmland protection in Anhui Province faces realistic dilemmas such as "mismatch between responsibilities and interests", "imbalance between costs and compensation" and "single policy tools": on the one hand, local governments face the dual constraints of fiscal pressure and development assessment in the balance of farmland occupation and compensation, and the enthusiasm of farmers as the main body of farmland protection is suppressed due to the low compensation standards and rigid methods; on the other hand, the current compensation policy focuses on the protection of grain production capacity, and the consideration of ecological service value and loss of farmland development rights is insufficient, and the application of market-based compensation means lags behind. By constructing a multi-compensation framework of "government-led-market-supplemented-social participation", the study proposes: first, to clarify the multiple subjects and objects of cultivated land protection compensation, to incorporate horizontal compensation between local governments, incentives for new agricultural operators, and protection of farmers' rights and interests into policy design, and to establish differentiated compensation standards based on grain output, ecological value and opportunity cost; second, to expand the source of compensation funds, explore market-oriented mechanisms such as cultivated land index trading and ecological product value realization, and integrate central transfer payments, local fiscal budgets and social capital investment; third, to improve the supporting measures of compensation policies, and to improve the effectiveness of policy implementation by establishing a dynamic monitoring system for cultivated land quality, strengthening performance evaluation of compensation funds, and cultivating a social supervision mechanism for cultivated land protection. The research conclusions provide a practical reference for optimizing the cultivated land protection system in major grain-producing areas and promoting regional coordinated development, and also provide new ideas for solving the institutional contradiction of "disconnection between protectors and beneficiaries".

Contracting farmers are the main entities in cultivated land protection. From the perspective of contractual rights, improving the ecological compensation standards for cultivated land under the “Separation of Three Rights” system helps coordinate interest relationships in ecological compensation and serves as the key to benefit distribution among multiple right-holders. Reasonable compensation to contracting farmers facilitates the dual consideration of food security and ecological safety in cultivated land. The study starts from the connotation of contractual rights, incorporates both opportunity cost losses and ecological values into compensation criteria based on the membership attributes of contractual rights and the nature of use rights. Employing the equivalent factor method, replacement cost method, and opportunity cost method, it calculates compensation standards for both transferred and non-transferred contracting farmers, using prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province as case examples. (1) Land-transferring contracted farmers: The compensation standard is calculated based on opportunity cost loss as the compensation basis. (2) Non-transferring contracted farmers: The compensation standard incorporates both opportunity cost losses and the ecological value generated through agricultural production. Research Findings: The average compensation standard for contracted farmland transfer in Jiangsu Province is 6275.79 CNY/hm2, primarily implemented through government compensation mechanisms. The average compensation standard for non-transferred contracted farmland in Jiangsu Province is 40,604 CNY/hm2, implemented through a government–market–community collaborative mechanism. The tiered compensation criteria, by accounting for differential contributions of farmland transfer participants and non-participants to agro-ecosystem services, effectively reconcile the dual imperatives of arable land preservation and livelihood enhancement for contracted farmers.

Cultivated land protection is related to food security and sustainable development. As an important reserve resource, the protection and development of cultivated land in mountainous areas need attention from governments and academia. This paper analyses the long‐term evolution process cultivated land in mountainous areas of Southwest China by using large‐scale remote sensing, topographic relief amplitude model, and a modified binary logistic regression model, to understand internal reasons for evolution differentiation at the macro level. The results show that untransformed cultivated land is mainly distributed below the topographic relief amplitude of 770 m. The transformation direction and spatial characteristics of transformed cultivated land gradually shift to low relief amplitude (<631 m) areas with time. Construction land accounts for 51.11% of the cultivated land transformation, usually distributed in flatlands or basins below the relief amplitude of 498 m, and hilly cultivated land around it displays a fluctuating recovery process. Topography is the most important factor affecting the evolution of cultivated land in mountainous areas. However, there are still differences in the driving mechanism of cultivated land evolution types, and some key policies in China in the past directly affected the evolution paths of cultivated land in mountainous areas. The research results can provide ideas for the utilization and protection of cultivated land in similar mountainous areas.

Predicting the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and trade-off/synergy relationships of ecosystem service value (ESV) under different policy scenarios is of great significance for realizing regional sustainable development. This study established a framework and used the geographical simulation and optimization systems-future land use simulation (GeoSOS-FLUS) model and bivariate local autocorrelation analysis to stimulate and predict the impact of land use change on the ESV of Anyang City from 1995 to 2025. We also explored the trade-offs and synergy among ecosystem services under three policy scenarios (natural evolution, cultivated land protection, and ecological protection) in 2025. Results show that (1) the land use change in Anyang from 1995 to 2025 was significant, and the degree of land use change under the cultivated land and ecological protection scenarios was more moderate than that under the natural evolution scenario; (2) The total ESV decreased between 1995 and 2015, amounting to losses of 1126 million yuan, and the decline from 2015 to 2025 under the natural evolution scenario was more significant than those under the cultivated land protection and ecological protection scenarios; and (3) an obvious synergy was observed between various ecosystem services in Anyang City under different scenarios in 2025, and the most significant synergy was observed under the natural evolution scenario. In terms of spatial distribution, the agglomeration of “high–high” synergy in the west and “low–low” synergy in the central region was significant. Local areas showed “high–low” and “low–high” trade-off relationships scattered between their built land and woodland or cultivated land. The proposed framework can provide certain scientific support for regulating land use and ecosystem services in rapidly urbanized areas.

In 2008, China’s total area of cultivated land was approximately 121.7 million ha, accounting for 7.8% of the world’s total cultivated land; cultivated land per capita was 0.09 ha, only accounting for 38.2% of the world average. China’s cultivated lands were reduced by 12.31 million ha in the period 1997–2008; that is, a loss of 1.03 million ha per year. Although China implements stringent cultivated land protection policies and in some areas has achieved much success, the rate of reduction of cultivated land through rapid urbanisation, agricultural structure adjustment and ecological restoration has proved uncontrollable. Proposed solutions to China’s cultivated land protection include: 1) learning from the successful experiences of other countries; 2) reforming cultivated land protection measures; and 3) paying more attention to improving the quality of its cultivated lands.

Cultivated land protection and rational use in China

Coordinated development of cultivated land use and ecological protection in cities along the main stream of the Yellow River in Henan Province, China

Spatial-temporal variations of cultivated land compensation and its compensation mechanism in mainland China

Exploring the elements that affect farmers’ willingness to protect cultivated land is the key to improving the ecological compensation mechanism for cultivated land protection. The purpose of this study was to analyze regional differences in ecological compensation for cultivated land protection, and to explore the influence of different external environments on farmers’ willingness to engage in cultivated land protection. Based on the Profitable Spatial Boundary Analysis theory (PSBA), GIS spatial analysis technology was used to analyze regional space differences and assess ecological compensation for urban and rural cultivated land protection at the micro scale. The results show that the willingness of farmers to participate in cultivated land protection is affected by the external environment and the ecological compensation offered. The trend of the comprehensive benefit of cultivated land protection ecological compensation (B) is “Λ” from the first layer to the third layer. The B value of the urban–rural junction area is the highest value. This shows that the external environment is favorable for ecological compensation in this area, which has a positive effect on farmers’ willingness to protect cultivated land. B < 0 in the first and third layer, which has a depressant effect on farmers’ willingness to protect cultivated land. The study results contribute to the understanding of the impact of regional differences in the external environmental on ecological compensation and farmers’ willingness to engage in cultivated land protection.

IntroductionChina’s main grain-producing areas (MGPA) have made outstanding contributions to cultivated land protection and food security. Integrating cultivated land use with socio-economic activities and constructing a horizontal ecological compensation mechanism under the virtual cultivated land (VCL) framework are important measures for achieving the “Trinity Comprehensive Protection” of quantity, quality, and ecology cultivated land.MethodsWe used the North China Plain (NCP) as the research area and the multiregional input–output model to analyze inter-regional VCL flow, and ecological compensation standard was calculated based on the ecosystem services value. Results(1) VCL flowed from economically underdeveloped regions (e.g., Hebei, Shandong, and Henan) to economically developed regions (e.g., Beijing and Tianjin). As a net outflow region, the NCP provided VCL for the Yangtze River and Pearl River deltas (2) The compensation standards ranged from 2192–18406 yuan/hectare. Net inflow regions were payment areas, and net outflow regions were receiving areas. Beijing and Tianjin should pay 3.04 and 0.70 billion yuan for other provinces. The NCP should obtain 17.35 billion yuan from other regions in China.DiscussionThe research framework provides a basis for division of responsibility for cultivated land protection and offers ideas and frameworks for horizontal ecological compensation of cultivated land.