Farmland Management Research Articles

Mapping soil organic matter and identifying potential controls in the farmland of Southern China: Integration of multi‐source data, machine learning and geostatistics

AbstractSoil organic matter (SOM) plays a critical role in terrestrial ecosystem functioning and is closely related to many global issues like soil fertility, soil health and climate regulation. Therefore, obtaining accurate information on the spatial distribution of SOM and its potential controlling factors is of global interest. However, this remains a great challenge since SOM is affected by numerous natural and anthropogenic factors and usually showed strong heterogeneity. In this study, we collected a total of 16,580 surface soil (0–20 cm) samples from the farmland throughout Jiangxi Province. And the Random Forest (RF), Cubist and gradient‐boosted models were compared and used to define the factor which is most associated with SOM. Then the ordinary kriging (OK) and machine learning‐ordinary co‐kriging (ML‐COK) were used to map SOM. We found that on average, 30.86 g kg−1 SOM was present in farmland soil of Jiangxi Province. Anthropogenic activities strongly affected SOM level, with five of the top 10 most important factors are anthropogenic related. The straw return amount was proved to have the largest importance (31.46%) for modelling SOM and a significant (p < 0.001) positive relationship between SOM content and the amount of straw returned to farmland was detected. Additionally, returning straw improved crop production. Soil derived from the Quaternary Subred Sand has the highest SOM content (37.82 g kg−1). Crop rotation also improved SOM content and the rice‐bean rotation system has the highest SOM content (34.27 g kg−1). With the best performance, the RF algorithm (R2 = 0.49, RMSE = 6.77 g kg−1) was selected to identify the primary control of SOM and integrated with COK, which we termed as ML‐COK, to map the SOM in the farmland of Jiangxi Province. ML‐COK outperformed OK method for mapping the SOM in farmland of Jiangxi Province with R2 of 0.351 and Lin's concordance correlation coefficient of 0.549. Farmland distributed in the central part of the province had high SOM content. In contrast, farmland in the north, south and east parts had relatively low SOM. Our study offers new insight for mapping soil properties, identifying potential factors driving variation in SOM, and also provides valuable information for making more reasonable and environmentally friendly farmland management measures.

The Impact of Intergenerational Inheritance on the Scale of Farmland Management in the Context of Aging: Evidence from Eastern China

The dilemma of aging and lack of successors must be understood to improve the scale efficiency and competitiveness of China’s agriculture. This paper uses a survey of 1347 farmers in Liaoning, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi and applies tobit and probit models to explore the impact of intergenerational inheritance on farmland management in terms of the current scale and willingness for expansion. The results show that (1) an increased probability of intergenerational inheritance in agriculture can significantly increase the scale of farmland operations, with a greater effect on the current scale than on the willingness to expand; (2) the scale upgrading effect of agricultural intergenerational inheritance is greater in regions with frequent nonagricultural activities and in families with middle or low-scale farmland operations; and (3) the promotion effect on the current scale is greater for elderly farmers 60 years old or above than for farmers who are 40–59 years old, while the promotion effect on the willingness for expansion exists only for the latter. Therefore, policies should attract young, skilled laborers to return to their hometowns for agricultural employment and entrepreneurship and support farmland transfer and scale operation in regions with frequent nonagricultural activities or a lower scale of agricultural operations.

How to Improve the Benefits of Short-Term Fallow on Soil Physicochemical and Microbial Properties: A Case Study from the Yellow River Delta

Fallowing is regarded as an effective method for the self-recovery management of farmland and is generally used in cultivated land management. Studies have shown that long-term fallow has many ecological and environmental benefits. However, the long-term fallowing of farmland has also caused a decline in the grain production of farmland for a period of time. Short-term fallow can reduce the risk of food insecurity, but there are few studies on short-term fallow, especially on the comparation of different fallowing management methods and their relationship with soil microbial ecology. Our study has focused on seven treatments. Firstly, the traditional farming method was set as the control group. Native vegetation and crop-pasture vegetation were set as the fallowing vegetation. There were three irrigation–fertilization levels for each vegetation. The effects of the sampling times showed that the impact of fallow management on the soil properties became gradually stronger with time. The interactions between the sampling times and treatments showed a significant impact on organic carbon and total nitrogen. There was a significant impact of fallow management on the inorganic carbon accumulation and ammonia nitrogen consumption. Microbial biomass carbon was significantly increased by fallowing. Fallowing with irrigation could enhance the soil microbial nitrogen transformation. Some genera associated with assisting diseases were significantly increased by the native vegetation fallow and grass fallow with farmyard manure. The fallow with native vegetation showed more advantageous ecological benefits than the crop-pasture vegetation fallow. Although the crop-pasture vegetation followed the principle of ecological intensification, it failed to show better ecological benefits in the short fallow period. In irrigation management, the benefits of native vegetation and crop-pasture vegetation are similar. However, considering the lower cost of crop-pasture vegetation, crop-pasture vegetation fallow with irrigation could be a better choice. If it is difficult to implement conservation measures during the fallowing process, native vegetation fallowing without management may be the only fallowing choice.

The Impact of Farmland Management Rights Mortgage Loan on the Agri-Food Industrial Agglomeration: Case of Hubei Province

The Chinese government encourages rural economic entities to use farmland management rights as collateral for loans, which helps to alleviate multi-level financing needs in rural areas. Based on the panel data of counties in Hubei Province, this paper adopts the Difference-in-Differences (DID) and the intermediary effect model to evaluate the impact of farmland management rights mortgage loans (FMRML) on the agri-food industrial agglomeration (AIA) in China. The study found that the pilot policy has significantly promoted the AIA. Moreover, the regression results remain robust after conducting the placebo test and the Propensity Score Matching Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) model, which demonstrates that the improvement effect is stable and long-lasting. From the heterogeneity analysis, it can be seen that the policy of FMRML has a more significant effect on the AIA in mountainous and hilly areas. By further analysis of the mechanism of action, it can be concluded that the pilot policy promotes the AIA by enhancing agricultural specialized production. The main findings can provide information for policymakers in China. The recommendations we have summarized encompass gradually expanding the scope of the pilot policy of FMRML, advancing the institutionalization and legalization of the policy, and promoting agricultural production specialization.

Provincial-Scale Research on the Eco-Security Structure in the Form of an Ecological Network of the Upper Yellow River: A Case Study of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Important for promoting the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and sandy areas, ecological networks form the backbone of the regional ecological security pattern. An improved morphological spatial pattern analysis coupled with a minimum cumulative resistance model (MSPA–MCR) based on multi-source data was used to study, on a provincial scale, the ecological security pattern of Ningxia, an ecologically fragile region in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in China. The results show the following: (1) A reasonable classification of ecological sources and ecological corridors is key to constructing hierarchical ecological networks. Classifying ecological sources by replacing patch areas with energy factors and identifying the importance of ecological corridors by modifying the gravity model with the energy factors proposed in this paper could improve the rationality of the hierarchical structure division of ecological networks. (2) Grassland as the substrate vegetation type is an important ecological source type in arid and semi-arid ecologically fragile areas, and forests and lake wetlands are the main ecological source types in mountainous areas and oasis areas, respectively. The study area was located in the arid–semi-arid transitional area, with a variety of ecological types, such as mountain, oasis, and desert. Therefore, the complex ecological source types of forest–grassland–wetland appear in some areas. (3) There are 45 ecological patch groups that can be classified as ecological sources in Ningxia, including 10 primary source groups. The number of primary source groups is small, and their spatial distribution is unbalanced. There are two categories of ecological corridors, the river corridor and the mountain corridor, and the network connectivity is poor. (4) The ecological network structure of Ningxia is presented as an ecological security structure consisting of one belt, three screens, three corridors, and five clusters, forming a hierarchical nested ecological network security structure system.

EVALUASI PROGRAM FLOOD MANAGEMENT IN SELECTED RIVER BASINS DI KABUPATEN PANDEGLANG

The problem of flooding and erosion is a natural phenomenon that greatly affects the community. Losses resulting from these events can reduce the quality of human life in various aspects of life. So there is a need for immediate management with various strategies. One of them is the Evaluation of the Flood Management in Selected River Basins Program in Pandeglang Regency. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Farmland Management and Sustainable Agriculture Practices for Flood Management in Selected River Basins program Sector Project Pandeglang with the perspective of the CIPP evaluation model (Context, Input, Process, Product) and to recommend sustainability strategies. The research was conducted using a descriptive method with a qualitative approach. The results showed that the existence of the FMSRB program was able to answer various problems with critical lands and flood risk. Then the most effective continuation strategy that must be carried out is carried out by the Pandeglang Regency government with a Collaborative Governance strategy, namely collaboration between the Regency government and the private sector, universities/academics, and so on. The conclusion of the research is that the CIPP evaluation model can answer the main causes of flooding in the Pandeglang Regency.

Local and landscape scale woodland cover and diversification of agroecological practices shape butterfly communities in tropical smallholder landscapes

Abstract The conversion of biodiversity‐rich woodland to farmland and subsequent management has strong, often negative, impacts on biodiversity. In tropical smallholder agricultural landscapes, the impacts of agriculture on insect communities, both through habitat change and subsequent farmland management, is understudied. The use of agroecological practices has social and agronomic benefits for smallholders. Although ecological co‐benefits of agroecological practices are assumed, systematic empirical assessments of biodiversity effects of agroecological practices are missing, particularly in Africa. In Malawi, we assessed butterfly abundance, species richness, species assemblages and community life‐history traits on 24 paired woodland and smallholder‐managed farmland sites located across a gradient of woodland cover within a 1 km radius. We tested whether habitat type (woodland vs. farmland) and woodland cover at the landscape scale interactively shaped butterfly communities. Farms varied in the implementation of agroecological pest and soil management practices and flowering plant species richness. Farmland had lower butterfly abundances and approximately half the species richness than woodland. Farmland butterfly communities had, on average, a larger wingspan than woodland site communities. Surprisingly, higher woodland cover in the landscape had no effect on butterfly abundance in both habitats. In contrast, species richness was higher with higher woodland cover. Butterfly species assemblages were distinct between wood‐ and farmland and shifted across the woodland cover gradient. Farmland butterfly abundance, but not species richness, was higher with higher flowering plant species richness on farms. Farms with a higher number of agroecological pest management practices had a lower abundance of the dominant butterfly species, but not of rarer species. However, a larger number of agroecological soil management practices was associated with a higher abundance of rarer species. Synthesis and applications: We show that diversified agroecological soil practices and flowering plant richness enhanced butterfly abundance on farms. However, our results suggest that on‐farm measures cannot compensate for the negative effects of continued woodland conversion. Therefore, we call for more active protection of remaining African woodlands in tandem with promoting agroecological soil management practices and on‐farm flowering plant richness to conserve butterflies while benefiting smallholders.

Effects of Annual Straw Incorporation Combined with Application of Nitrogen Fertilizer in Rice Season on Dry Matter and Nutrient Accumulation Characteristics of Subsequent Rapeseed

In the rice–rapeseed rotation system, straw incorporation plays an important role in achieving the rational utilization of resources and maintaining crop production. However, in the study of rice–rapeseed rotation, there was no study on the effect of straw and nitrogen (N) fertilizer in the rice season on the dry matter accumulation (DMA) and nutrient accumulation of subsequent rapeseed. So, this study relied on the localization experiment of rice–rapeseed rotation and annual straw incorporation (full straw returning to the field, SR; the control is full straw removal from the field, CK) with different N fertilizer application rates (N1: 0 kg ha−1, N2: 75 kg ha−1, N3: 150 kg ha−1, and N4: 225 kg ha−1) in the rice season. Based on the fourth year of experiment implementation, the effects of annual straw incorporation combined with the N fertilizer application rate in the rice season on the leaf area index (LAI), photosynthetic potential (PP), DMA and its distribution proportion and rate, and nutrient uptake and its allocation proportion in rapeseed were discussed. At the bolting stage (BS), initial flowering stage (IFS), terminal flowering stage (TFS), and mature stage (MS), the DMA of rapeseed in SR was significantly higher than that in CK by 69.90, 64.27, 62.90, and 41.27%, respectively. The accumulation of N, phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in SR was significantly higher than that in CK at the BS, IFS, TFS, and MS. Straw treatment had a significant impact on the apparent surplus of N, P, and K in the rice, rapeseed, and annual seasons, while the application of N fertilizer in the rice season had a significant or extremely significant impact on the apparent surplus (AS) of N in the rice, rapeseed, and annual seasons, indicating that fertilization of previous crops had a certain aftereffect. Therefore, straw incorporation is a sustainable farmland management measure.

To what extent do institutional arrangements shape the excludability of resource systems? Lessons from French farms

AbstractThe question of the impact of institutional arrangements on the nature of goods is insufficiently addressed in the literature. By the nature of goods, we refer to the economic taxonomy of goods, meaning their privateness is defined according to their degrees of excludability and subtractability. This paper aims to fill this research gap by examining whether institutional arrangements developed for the management of private goods can reduce the degrees of excludability of these goods. To this end, we analyse four collective farmland management projects in the Isère department in France. We adapt the tool of property as a bundle of rights in order to characterize the impact of these projects on the nature of farmland. Our results show that the distribution of land rights, as well as the rules designed to define land rights, influence the degree of excludability of farmland. We discuss the impact of these findings on public policy-making.

Delineation and optimization of cotton farmland management zone based on time series of soil-crop properties at landscape scale in south Xinjiang, China

Traditional farmland management approaches treat farmland as a homogeneous unit, leading to uneven distribution and waste of resources, which is contrary to precision agriculture. Management zones (MZ) delineation is an essential method of site-specific management (SSM) for accomplishing variable rate input of resources in subregions by recognizing the heterogeneity of farmland soils. Aimed at the soil salinization problem in Xinjiang, this study estimates the salt content of soil profiles and essential nutrient content using time series Sentinel-2 images and machine learning methods, and describes crop growth conditions through dynamic time warping. Subsequently, geographically weighted principal component analysis and possibilistic fuzzy C-means algorithm were employed to outline MZ based on soil-crop characteristics. Three scales (10 m, 100 m, and field scales divided by ridges) were examined to obtain the optimal scale of delineation. Soil-crop properties were estimated at a spatial resolution of 10 m using machine learning methods with R2 > 0.65. In the zoning process, the field scale was selected with accuracy and practicality in agricultural practices, with comparatively higher homogeneity within zones and variation between zones. The soils in the study area were categorized into three zones at field scale with a fuzzy performance index of 0.68, a normalized classification entropy of 0.71, and fuzzy class of 0.30. Soil function is primarily restricted by salinity and fertility. Fertilizer recommendation strategies were given for the three zones. This study uses time-series remote sensing images to obtain a high-precision estimation of soil-crop characteristics at 10 m, and optimize the scale of farmland management zoning, which provides a valuable technology and scale selection for SSM for cotton management zone delineation in saline farmland in arid and semi-arid regions.

Mapping and Assessment of Cashew Plantation in Nassarawa State, Nigeria Using Geo Spatial Technology

The world demand for cashew and its by-products leads to increase expansion of the cultivation across West-African countries especially in Nigeria. It has generated wealth for many smallholders and contributed to cashew economy success. This study aimed at mapping existing cashew plantations for better management of rural farmland and assessing the soil suitability to future cashew expansion in the study area. GIS and multi-criteria analysis were used to analyze the natural vegetation and soil suitability for future cashew expansion in Nasarawa state. Data collection was done through structured questionnaire administered to cashew farmers in the study area, GPS coordinates and soil samples were collected for suitability test. Results showed that despite a very suitable soil for plantation cashew, its expansion is slow with implication in conservation and carbon emissions. This implies that there is need for a sustainable management of cashew agriculture practices to ensure optimum production for farmers and stakeholders in cashew value chain should address relevant factors affecting low yield via a holistic government intervention program.

Agricultural intensification weakens soil multifunctionality by reducing fungal diversity

Agricultural intensification is known to impact the soil microbial diversity and community structure, which are responsible for soil multifunctionality. Although the contributions of fungal and bacterial diversity to soil multifunctionality in natural ecosystems have been extensively studied, little is known about the research in intensive agroecosystems. Therefore, intensively-managed farmland, farmland abandoned 10 years and farmland abandoned for 44 years investigated as a gradient of intensity of farmland management. The results showed that agricultural intensification reduced fungal Shannon diversity and weakened soil multifunctionality. Fungal diversity was the major driver of soil multifunctionality. Structural equation modeling was used to identify the effects of soil abiotic properties (soil organic carbon and soil total nitrogen), and fungal and bacterial communities on multifunctionality. Our model predicted 64.0 % of the variation in soil multifunctionality, and confirmed that fungal diversity was positively associated with multifunctionality. These results suggest that sustaining microbial diversity, especially fungal diversity might be a means of reducing the effect of agricultural intensification on soil multifunctionality.

A multi-scale analysis on the importance of patch-surroundings for farmland birds

Agricultural intensification has profoundly changed agricultural landscapes with important biodiversity impacts. There is increasing knowledge on the general effects of landscape structure and management practices on plant and animal species but understanding the role of surrounding landscape structure for patch-scale biodiversity is more complex. While it can be reasonably assumed, that adjacent habitats are more important than more distant ones, the importance of landscape structure has often been tested at the landscape scale but rarely at smaller scales such as patch-surroundings. We assessed the influence and interdependences of landscape composition and configuration (LCC) and land use/land cover (LULC) on bird species richness and abundance through a multi-scale analysis with specific focus on the surrounding patches. In two agricultural regions in Switzerland, we collected point data of birds on 36 transects (500 m) and combined them with detailed spatial data on LULC. Bird richness and abundance were correlated to sets of landscape metrics as proxies for LCC computed at the transect-scale as well as for the patch surroundings. We analysed patch LULC as well as the most important patch-surrounding metrics using generalized linear mixed models. The results illustrate that patch LULC is the most important predictor of bird richness and abundance. Woody structures increase bird richness, followed by extensive management on patch scale. On the transect-scale semi-natural structure and heterogeneous LCCs are beneficial for bird richness and abundance. The effect of patch-surrounding structure LCCs is only small and interacts with patch LULC. Birds in grassland benefit from fallows in the surroundings, while in cropland they tend to respond positively to surrounding extensive grassland. Our results highlight that considering surroundings can help improve patch-based biodiversity assessments, which will then better predict the consequences of farmland management and make the outcome more applicable for practice.

Discussion on High-standard Farmland Management and Protection Problems and Countermeasures

Affected by factors such as repeated delays in the epidemic, climate change and frequent natural disasters, food security risks are prominent, and it is imperative to ensure food security. The construction of high-standard farmland is a realistic need to improve comprehensive agricultural production capacity and ensure food security, but in the construction process, there is a phenomenon of attaching importance to construction and neglecting management and protection, resulting in the failure of the completed high-standard farmland to play a sustained and efficient role, resulting in damage to facilities and waste of resources. From the perspective of inadequate management and protection of high-standard farmland, this paper analyzes the causes, analyzes the problems, and puts forward countermeasures, so as to provide positive suggestions for the long-term benefits of high-standard farmland and ensure food security.

Does straw returning affect the root rot disease of crops in soil? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Straw returning is a sustainable way that does not destroy soil ecology in agronomic management. Some studies have found that straw returning may aggravate or reduce soilborne diseases in the past few decades. Despite the increasing number of independent studies investigated the effect of straw returning on root rot of crops, the quantitative analysis regarding the relationship between straw returning and crop root rot is still undefined. In this study, keywords co-occurrence matrix was extracted from 2489 published studies (published from 2000 to 2022, the same below) on controlling soilborne diseases of crops. The methods used for soilborne diseases prevention have shifted from chemical to biological and agricultural control since 2010. As root rot is the soilborne disease with the largest weight in keyword co-occurrence according to statistics, we further collected 531 articles focusing on crop root rot. Notably, the 531 studies are mainly distributed in the United States, Canada, China and other countries in Europe and the south and southeast of Asia, and focus on the root rot of soybean, tomato, wheat and other important grain crops or economic crops. Based on the meta-analysis of 534 measurements in 47 previous studies, we explored how 10 management factors (soil pH/texture, type/size of straw, depth/rate/cumulative amount of application, days after application, beneficial/pathogenic microorganism inoculated before application and annual N-fertilizer input) during straw returning affect root rot onset worldwide. The results showed that straw size and microorganisms inoculated before straw returning are the key factors affecting the incidence of root rot. In combination with actual agricultural production, detailed advice applicable to traditional farming system on the optimization management of straw returning was given. This study emphasized the significance of straw pretreatment and farmland management to reduce soilborne diseases during straw returning.

Integrating climate change into projections of soil carbon sequestration from regenerative agriculture

Computational models can project how changes in land use and management will affect soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks over time, but these models usually assume an unchanging climate. We investigate how incorporating climate change projections affects carbon sequestration and SOC stocks. We apply the Rothamsted Carbon model (RothC) to study agricultural land use and management transitions in the U.S. state of Vermont, comparing several regenerative farming strategies, as well as afforestation, against business-as-usual. In 11 relatively-homogeneous Ecoregions within the study area, we run simulations for each land management scenario from 2022–2099, under both projected climate change and the static climate normal from 1991–2021. We use downscaled climate projections from four Global Climate Models, forced by RCP 4.5, that bracket the range of likely climate change. We find that rising temperatures decrease SOC stocks compared to static climate runs by 9.1% to 19.9% across management scenarios, leading to net SOC loss even under many regenerative farming scenarios. Other regenerative practices, notably rotational grazing, could maintain or slightly increase SOC through 2099, and old-growth afforestation could increase statewide stocks by up to 4.5 Mt. Although the potential for farmland management to increase SOC over current levels is diminished when accounting for climate change, it remains important to incentivize regenerative agriculture and afforestation, because this may be the only way to avoid SOC losses by end-of-century.

Insights into the impacts of autotoxic allelochemicals from rhizosphere of Atractylodes lancea on soil microenvironments.

Atractylodes lancea suffers from continuous cropping obstacles that have become a major constraint in its cultivation, but there is still little information on the autotoxic allelochemicals and their interaction with soil microorganisms. In this study, we firstly identified the autotoxic allelochemicals from rhizosphere of A. lancea and determined their autotoxicity. Third-year continuous A. lancea cropping soils, i.e., rhizospheric soil and bulk soil, compared with control soil and one-year natural fallow soil were used to determine soil biochemical properties and microbial community. Eight allelochemicals from A. lancea roots were detected and exhibited significant autotoxicity effects on seed germination and seedling growth of A. lancea with the highest content of dibutyl phthalate in rhizospheric soil and lowest IC50 value of 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol inhibiting seed germination. The contents of soil nutrients and organic matter, pH value, and enzyme activity were altered between different soils, and the parameters of fallow soil were close to those of the unplanted soil. The PCoA analysis indicated that the community composition of both bacteria and fungi were differed significantly among the soil samples. Continuous cropping decreased OTUs numbers of bacterial and fungal communities, and natural fallow restored them. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Actinobacteria decreased, and that of Acidobacteria and Ascomycota increased after three years cultivation. The LEfSe analysis identified 115 and 49 biomarkers for bacterial and fungal communities, respectively. The results suggested that natural fallow restored the structure of soil microbial community. Overall, our results revealed that autotoxic allelochemicals caused the variations of soil microenvironments and resulted in replantation problem of A. lancea, and natural fallow alleviated the soil deterioration by remodeling the rhizospheric microbial community and restoring soil biochemical properties. These findings provide important insights and clues for solving the continuous cropping problems and guiding the management of sustainable farmland.

The impact of farmland use transition on rural livelihood transformation in China

Land use transitions are an important research area in land system science. In seeking a feasible way to improve rural residents' livelihoods and rural development, this paper explores the mechanism and effects of farmland use transition on rural livelihood transformation from the perspective of the human-land relationship. The theoretical framework of rural livelihood transformation as affected by farmland use transition is established, and econometric models are used to test the effects based on empirical panel data from China for the period 2000–2017. The major conclusions are drawn as follows. In essence, farmland use transition is the redistribution of agricultural productivity on farmland, and rural livelihood transformation is a process of long-term and trend transformation of rural residents' livelihood capital, livelihood structure, and livelihood pattern. Land use transitions boost the transformation of rural livelihood by regulating the rural human-land interactive relationship and substitutional relationship of elements in agricultural development. For every 1% increase in farmland management scale transition and farmland efficiency transition, rural livelihood transformation can be improved by 3.748% and 3.854%, respectively. The direction and intensity of the impact of farmland use transition on rural livelihood transformation differ by area and topographic conditions. Furthermore, people's livelihood finances and farmers' planting decisions regulate the effects of farmland use transition on rural livelihood transformation. The authors argue that regulating land use transitions can be an important component of policy-making to promote rural livelihoods transformation, and rural development transformation.

An evolutionary game study on the cooperation behavior of the “government, banks, and guarantee institutions” in financing guarantee for China’s new agricultural entities

“Government, bank, and guarantee institution” cooperative financing guarantee (hereinafter referred to as the cooperation mechanism) is an important way to alleviate the financing difficulties of China’s new agricultural entities and raise the credit line of bank financing. In order to find an effective way for the improvement of low-level equilibrium in the actual operation of the cooperation mechanism, this study builds a three-party evolutionary game model using the local government, banks, and agricultural guarantee institutions, with incomplete information on all partners of the cooperation mechanism as the study object. This model focuses on the weak activeness, strong dependence, poor cooperation effect, lower credit line of guarantee, and other specific problems. Moreover, this study analyzes the equilibrium solution of this model and extracts the significant factors affecting the positive cooperation behaviors of the three parties (government, banks, and guarantee institutions) in the view of interest realization. Analog simulation is performed to explore the key conditions for truly alleviating the financing risks of new agricultural entities, thus helping improve the operation quality of the cooperation mechanism. According to the study results, the focus of “government, bank, and guarantee institution” cooperation should be shifted from post risk sharing to prior risk identification. Specifically, the government should further share high-quality information affiliated with farmland management rights and reflecting the status of risks; guide banks and agricultural guarantee institutions should share the cost of risk identification, accelerate the acquisition of higher information transformation value, and prevent the “free rider problem.” In the last part, policies are recommended in four aspects, including risk information sharing, risk identification quality improvement, risk identification cost sharing, and risk information value transformation, which have practical guiding significance for the sustainable development of “government, bank, and guarantee institution” financing guarantee for China’s new agricultural entities.

Improving soil hydrological simulation under freeze–thaw conditions by considering soil deformation and its impact on soil hydrothermal properties

Traditional agricultural or eco-hydrological models usually ignore soil deformation and its impact on hydrothermal properties when simulating soil water, heat, and salt transport under freeze–thaw conditions. As a result, significant errors may occur when these models are used in areas with considerable frost heave, such as arid areas with shallow groundwater tables. In this study, the simultaneous heat and water model (SHAW model) was modified with considering soil deformation and its impact on hydrothermal properties during the freeze–thaw period. The modified SHAW model was then validated using the experimental data collected at the Hetao Irrigation District, in the upper Yellow River basin. Comparison between the simulated and observed data showed that the modified SHAW model performed well and obviously better than the original SHAW model in simulating the soil water, heat, and salt transport. As compared with the SHAW model, the modified SHAW model averagely decreased the RMSE value by 37.5% and 23% for soil water content and soil temperature, respectively. The modified model can be used as a decision tool for water management and salinity control of farmland in cold areas with significant frost heave.