China's inter-provincial grain trade and its virtual cultivated land flow simulation
Received date: 2016-03-04
Request revised date: 2016-05-11
Online published: 2016-08-29
Copyright
Food security issue of China is an increasing challenge as its population continues to grow while the resources remain limited and unevenly distributed. In hence, volatile climate also restricts food production. Local factors are no longer the most significant determinants of resource management. In fact, it is possible to redistribute resource supplies to meet the demands by expanding production, trading chains and indirect resource usage by consumers in today's modern economy system. The concept of virtual resource mapping invokes quantitative resource flow research, such as in grain trade, and provides a scientific basis for setting policies. At present, most virtual resource mapping studies have focused on international food trade or trade among different regions, but less on the inter-provincial level of trade. Research has shown that utilizing virtual resource mapping is a good way to devise strategies to improve uneven distribution. The aim of the study is to understand how resources flow and are consumed within the inter-provincial grain trade in China. Drawing on existing research, we study 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), analyze virtual cultivated land flow underlying the inter-provincial grain trade in China between 2010 and 2012, and evaluate the rationality of China's current grain trade patterns from the perspective of resource consumption. Using provincial food supply and demand data, a network optimal path analysis in ArcGIS is performed and the results are used to build a linear optimization model to obtain inter-provincial food trading volumes. Northeast China, North China and the Huang-Huai-Hai regions are the main output regions while South China and Southwest China are the main input areas. Inter-provincial grain trade virtual cultivated land flow accounted to 1747.4×104 hm2. In particular Heilongjiang, with the largest virtual land output (403.5×104 hm2), and Guangdong had the largest virtual land input (312×104 hm2). Virtual mapping of resource consumption was based on calculations made from the perspectives of both producers and consumers, producer use reflects actual resource consumption, while consumer use is presented as the ideal number given local grain production and resource conservation for importers through grain trade. When the producer value is larger, the grain trade flow is unreasonable. Among China's inter-provincial grain trade, it has used 250×104 hm2 of cultivated land more than produced locally. The results show that though virtual cultivated land flow has eased regional land resources imbalance, for some high-efficiency cultivation provinces, grain input brings more resource consumption. In China, an optimized inter-provincial food trade pattern could improve regional development, promote the rational allocation of resources and increase food security for consumers.
BEN Peiqi , WU Shaohua , LI Xiaotian , ZHOU Shenglu . China's inter-provincial grain trade and its virtual cultivated land flow simulation[J]. GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 2016 , 35(8) : 1447 -1456 . DOI: 10.11821/dlyj201608004
Fig. 1 China's inter-provincial vitrtual cultivated land flow analysis with grain production and land resource by province图1 中国各省粮食生产及虚拟耕地流动模拟 |
Fig. 2 Virtual mapping of cultivated land consumption from producers (a) and consumers (b)图2 以生产者和消费者角度计算的虚拟耕地资源流动关系图 |
Fig. 3 Net value of virtual cultivated land resource consumption of input provinces图3 输入省份虚拟耕地资源消耗净值图 |
Fig. 4 Virtual cultivated land consumption analysis by province图4 虚拟耕地资源消耗分析 |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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