Study On The Evaluation,Effects,and Consolidation Of Cultivated Land Fragmentation

In order to study the current situation and effects of cultivated land fragmentation, and explore the path to cultivated land fragmentation consolidation,the study selects Quzhou County,Hebei Province as the research object, by applying field investigating and household surveys method to get the basic data, by applying GIS and econometric software to extract and process data,the Characteristic,evalua-tion,effects,and consolidating path of cultivated land fragmentation have been analysised empirically based on the theory of Man-earth relationship, land evaluation, farmland engineering, agricultural wo-rks, agricultural economy and land consolidation.The main results and conclusions are as below.(1) The geometrical features of plots and field blocks in the state of cultivated land fragmentationIn the state of cultivated land fragmentation, the average size of plots is just0.16hm2,the average length is just102.2m, and the average width is just17.1m. The plots don’t fit to be farmed mechanically. The plots’ shape are long and narrow as a whole. the quantitative relations between the plots’ length and area follow power function. The plots’ length is negative correlated significantly (P <0.01) with the plots’ width, the quantitative relations between the density of earthen rows and the average width of plots follow power function. The longer sides of the plots go in different direction. The transportation is inefficient among the plots.The average size of field blocks is just7.9hm2.The shape of field blocks deviate from square.(2) The evaluation of cultivated land fragmentationThe method of comprehensive evaluation with multi-index should be used to evaluate the cultivated land fragmentation.New evaluation index system has been established,In order of importance, the indexes are the plots longth, the size of plots,the scale of farmers land, the consistency degree of plots length, the consistency degree of growing crops’ row direction of plots, the accessibility to road of plots,the number of households plots,the size of field blocks,and the shape index of field blocks. The degree of cultivated land fragmentation of Quzhou County is in more serious condition by employing the indexes system based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process.The result shows that cultivated land fragmentation is in more serious condition in Huang-Huai-Hai Plain.(3) The effects of cultivated land fragmentation①The effects of cultivated land fragmentation on mechanized farming and labor inputIn the state of cultivated land fragmentation, wheat harvester model is small to medium.The study finds that it takes evenly only17minutes to finish harvesting a single plot’s wheat, the combine harvest efficiency is only0.74hm2/h, the mean effective rate of combine harvesting time is positively correlated significantly (P<0.01) with the plot area and length, the quantitative relations between the combine harvesting efficiency and the plot area and length follow power function, and the plot length affects the combine harvesting efficiency more significantly than plot area. The study suggests that the combine harvesting efficiency is lower in the state of cultivated land fragmentation, in order to increase the combine harvesting efficiency, plot length should reach500m and plot area should be expanded to 2.5hm2in land consolidation. Farmers labor input is positively correlated significantly (P<0.01) with the number of famers plots. Farmers labor input is negatively correlated significantly (P<0.01) with the average size of farmer plots and farmer food crops planting proportion.The results show that cultivated land fragmentation is an obstacle to achieve greater economiesof scale.②The effects of cultivated land fragmentation on farmer technical efficiencyIn the state of cultivated land fragmentation, farmer comprehensive technical efficiency is not high.The number of farmer plots and the investment per hectare are respectvely negatively correlated significantly(P<0.01P<0.01,) with the farmer comprehensive technical efficiency. The average plots size, food crops planting proportion and labor per capita net income of farmer are respectively positively correlated significantly (P<0.01, P<0.01, P<0.05) with the farmer comprehensive technical efficiency.③The effects of cultivated land fragmentation on crop planting diversity61.0%of farmers diversify their crops. The number of farmer plots is positively correlated significantly (P<0.01) with the farmer crop planting diversity, and the correlation coefficient is0.44. The the smallest plot’s size and the area of farmland per agricultural labor force of farmer are respctively negatively correlated significantly (P<0.01, P<0.1) with the farmer crop planting diversity, and the correlation coefficients are respectively-12.39and-1.41.The crops are diversity on field blocks,and the diversity index is0.50.The number and average size of plots in field blocks don’t affect the crops diversity.④The effects of cultivated land fragmentation on spatial layout of farmland facilitiesIn the state of cultivated land fragmentation, the field road proportion is low,and the production road proportion is high.The density of field road is high. The network connectivity and circuitry of farmland roads are both low. The forest belts on farmland are discontinuous,and have not formed forest network.Irrigation and drainage systems on the surface are not complete. Well locations are scattered randomly.(4) The path to cultivated land fragmentation consolidationLogistic regression analysis shows that the plots number and the area of farmland per labor force of farmer are respectively positively correlated significantly with the farmers will of merging scattered plots.The average plots size of farmers is negatively significantly with the farmers will of merging scattered plots.Merging scattered plots are farmers common need. Merging scattered plots can lower the degree of cultivated land fragmentation. Soil fertility is no longer the primary factor in choosing better plots, Irrigation and drainage facilities and the accessibility to road become the primary factor in choosing better plots. When the farmland facilities reach equilibrium, farmers will exchange plots according to equal-area.The rented farmers account for29.7percentage of total farmers. The fluxion rate of the field is20.2%. But only16.8%of farmers spontaneous farmland circulation occurs between adjacent plots. Farmers spontaneous circulation of farmland can not achieve concentrated scaled management and the goal of land consolidation. Average scale management area of cultivated land covers11.9hm2, that is20.9times the average scale of farmers’.The comprehensive fragmentation index of land scale management is0.90, the comprehensive fragmentation index of Quzhou County farmers is0.28,so land scale management can lower the degree of land fragmentation dramatically.The rents of land scale conversion are more expensive than Farmers spontaneous circulation of farmland.In the area whose cultivated land is fragmented, and whose rural laobor force have not been shifted to non-agricultral industries completely, in order to consolidate the cultivated land fragmentation, merging plots shoud be launched generally, the voluntarily transferred plots shuld be concentrated in single plot for achieving land scale conversion,the cultivated land scale conversion should be carried out depending on requirement gradually.