Abstract
Many studies of cultivated land use have focused on evaluating land quality. However, these studies rarely compare cultivated land quality (CLQ) between modern agricultural areas (MA) and traditional agricultural areas (TA). Thus, policymakers sometimes experience difficulties utilizing existing CLQ theories in CLQ improvement, especially in developing countries experiencing the transformation from traditional to modern agriculture. The objective of this study was to build a comprehensive hierarchical framework to compare the CLQ in MA and TA from the multidimensional perspectives of fertility, project, landscape, and ecology. An empirical analysis was conducted in Fujin City, Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China. The results showed that comprehensive CLQ in MA is better than that in TA, but individual cultivated land quality results are not the same as comprehensive quality. Specifically, project, landscape, and ecology quality in MA are better than in TA. However, fertility quality in MA is still worse. Moreover, the CLQ in MA tends to be more consistent in a small range, while the spatial pattern of CLQ in TA is disordered. We then argue that these results should be associated with different management modes and agrarian property systems between MA and TA. Based on our findings, four suggestions were generated to improve CLQ. Overall, this study provides a new comprehensive insight for understanding CLQ, and the framework, method, and findings of this study can help increase the effectiveness of CLQ improvements.
Highlights
The world is facing tremendous pressures related to food shortages and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger [1]
This work aims to answer two questions: (1) What are the multidimensional characteristics of Cultivated land quality (CLQ) at the plot scale? (2) What are the CLQs in two adjacent areas (MA and traditional agricultural areas (TA)) in the same exact physical geographical location, and how much of a difference does location make? We first introduce the theoretical framework and present the multidimensional indicator system for CLQ
coefficient of variation (CV) of comprehensive and individual CLQs in modern agricultural areas (MA) were larger than in TA. This indicates that the variation in CLA in MA was less than that in TA
Summary
The world is facing tremendous pressures related to food shortages and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger [1]. By 2020, 690 million people worldwide were suffering from hunger, and that number is expected to exceed 840 million by 2030 [2,3]. As the population grows unceasingly, at least 13 billion tons of extra food a year will feed an estimated 2 billion people by 2050 [4,5]. This massive demand for food is affecting cultivated land productivity and sustainable food production. Cultivated land quality (CLQ), an essential attribute of cultivated land associated with food production, is expected to have crucial impacts on regional food security [6,7,8,9]. To better protect food security, the improvement of CLQ has been increasingly advocated
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