Spatiotemporal Patterns in and Key Influences on Cultivated-Land Multi-Functionality in Northeast China’s Black-Soil Region

Abstract

Cultivated-land multi-functionality has become an important way to achieve sustainable cultivated-land protection, and it has become a hot spot in the field of land-management policy. Taking the cultivated black soils in the grain-producing area of Jilin Province, Northeast China, as a case study, this paper assessed the multi-functions of cultivated land over the past 30 years by applying the improved TOPSIS model. Furthermore, the key limiting factors and influencing factors of the multi-functions of cultivated land were identified through the obstacle-degree model and the Geo-detector. The results show that the level of multi-functionality rose from 1990 to 2020, but an increase in both economic and social functions hindered improvements in the ecological function of cultivated land. There were obvious spatial differences in the functions of cultivated land in different counties, with ecological functions showing the highest degree of differentiation, followed by social and economic functions. The per capita agricultural output, the degree of agricultural mechanization, the average output from cultivated land, and the agricultural-labor productivity had the most restrictive effects on the functions of cultivated land, with barrier-degree values of 15.90, 13.90, 11.76, and 10.30, respectively. Coupling–coordination in the multi-functions and sub-functions of cultivated land showed an upward trend, from “low coupling coordination–antagonistic coupling coordination” to “high coupling coordination-optimal coupling coordination”. The government should include the level of multi-functional utilization in future policies for the management and utilization of cultivated land and take measures to reduce the differences in the functions of cultivated land among regions. Quantifying the multi-functional value of cultivated land and subsidizing land cultivation should encourage farmers to protect the land and help to strengthen multi-functional planning and functional design, improve ecological utilization, and promote the sustainable use of cultivated land.