The changes of farmers' behavior in land use and its impacts on the food production during the process of marginalization of arable land
Received date: 2015-05-26
Request revised date: 2015-10-20
Online published: 2015-12-24
Copyright
Understanding the change characteristics of farmers' behavior in land use and its impact on food production is very useful and necessary for us to clearly judge China's food security situation, and has important implications for the formulation of relevant policies to ensure the security of China's food. With a stratified random sample method, we surveyed 23 villages of 4 counties, one city and one district in Xianning, Hubei province, and collected 1252 farmers' behavior data in land use. From the perspective of farmer's labor arrangements, allocation of cultivated land resources, patterns of agricultural land use and factors inputs, this paper analyzed the farmers' behavior changes in land use during the past 30 years and its impact on food production. The results show: (1) In the process of land use, farm households substantially transfer labor force to non-agricultural areas outside the region, the current main agricultural labors characterized by female, middle-aged and low educational degree labor force, especially in the hills. The labor input per unit of land area dropped significantly. In the adjustment of land use structure, farm households enlarged the operation scale of total land area as well as dryland and reduced the sown area of main food crops (paddy), especially in the plains. The patterns of farmers' arable land use such as field plowing, seeding planting, weeding and harvesting have changed profoundly, and labor forces were replaced by agricultural machinery. As for the other factors of production inputs, farmyard manures were reduced, and NPK chemical fertilizers were gradually replaced by compound fertilizers. The consumption of pesticides increased quickly. More and more families used agricultural service in land use, and the level of agricultural mechanization was improved significantly. (2) In the process of farmer behavior changing, the labor productivity, the land productivity and the grain commodity rate significantly increased by 4.61%, 29.69% and 50.56%, respectively. However, the total regional production of the main food crops and the average amount of the main food crops of farmer household decreased by 10.49% and 10.50%, respectively. Regional food security capacity has been weakened. (3) The labor productivity, land productivity and grain commodity rate of the main food production in the hills increased higher than in the plains. The total regional production of paddy and the average amount of farmer household improved a little in the hills, but decreased in the plains. The gravity center of paddy production presented a sloping phenomenon in space from the plains to the hills and mountains, from the high commercial value land to the low value land. (4) In order to combat the challenge of food production decrease because of the farmer's behavior change in land use and to ensure the security of food production, Chinese government should stabilize the main food crops' sown area in the marginalization area, formulate more positive policies to encourage the circulation of land, enlarge the scale of food production of farm household and improve land productivity of major food crops. These farmers who produce paddy rice with a large-scale land use should become the key supporter of national favorable policy and the food security policy.
LIU Chengwu , HUANG Limin . The changes of farmers' behavior in land use and its impacts on the food production during the process of marginalization of arable land[J]. GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 2015 , 34(12) : 2268 -2282 . DOI: 10.11821/dlyj201512006
Fig. 1 Location of Xianning city in Hubei province图1 咸宁市在湖北省的位置 |
Fig. 2 Changes of the total labor and the actual farm labor from 1981 to 2011图2 1981年以来调研区劳动力变化情况 |
Fig. 3 Comparison of farmers' occupation between in the hills and plains图3 平原地区与丘陵山区劳动力就业类型对比 |
Fig. 4 Differences of gender and age of farmers' emplyoyment图4 农户就业类型的性别与年龄差异 |
Fig. 5 Changes of land use stucture and scale of sample farmers in Xianning city图5 样本农户家庭用地结构与生产规模变化 |
Fig. 6 Comparison of land use structural adjustment between in the plains and hills图6 平原地区与丘陵山区农户用地结构调整比较 |
Fig. 7 Changes in traditional farming methods of agricultural land use图7 农地传统耕作方式变化 |
Fig. 8 Comparison of the sown area of main grain crops图8 主要粮食作物播种面积变化比较 |
Fig. 9 Changes in farmers' material inputs图9 农户的物质要素投入变化 |
Fig. 10 Changes in production efficiency of farmer labor图10 农户劳动力生产效率变化 |
Fig. 11 Changes in land productivity of major food crops paddy图11 主要粮食作物水稻的土地生产率变化 |
Fig. 12 Changes in commodity rate of rice production图12 水稻生产商品率变化 |
Fig. 13 Changes in total paddy total yield图13 水稻生产的总产量变化 |
Fig. 14 Changes in possession of farmer households’ paddy production图14 农户家庭水稻产量占有量变化 |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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