The Relationships Between Agricultural Land Ecological Characteristics And Value

Agricultural land provides not only food and fibre, but also different non-market commodities, with characteristics of externalities or public good. For example, agricultural land provides a variety of important environmental and social services including climate adjust, wildlife habitat, waste treatment, recreational opportunities, food security and so on. Because most of these services are public goods, the non-market value of agricultural land preservation cannot be directly obtained from market prices. So estimating the value of agricultural land is one of the focuses in the field of resources and environmental economics. It is very important to study the relationships between agricultural land ecological characteristics and value. On the one hand, it can not only provide the service for rural-urban land decision-making, but also delay the decrease in agricultural land. On the other hand, evaluating the value of agricultural land can reinforce and improve the content of agricultural land grade, can provide the important function for agricultural land management.Hubei province is an important nationwide production base of grain, cotton and oil. So the research is very important to the food security in our country. And it also can protect the ecological system of Yangtze Rive; protect the ecological system of wetland in Jianghan plain; reconcile the conflicts between agricultural land protection and economic growth. The dissertation selects Hubei province as the basic point of research and studies in the different eco-regions, such as metropolis, Jianghan plain, the Middle Hilly Areas, the west mountain areas of Hubei Province. In this paper, there are three objectives. Firstly, through investigating the land use change and the characteristics of agricultural land in these regions, analyzing the main ecological factors which influencing the values of agricultural lands. Secondly, according to the results of statistical analyze of 1248 valid questionnaires, using the contingent valuation method (CVM) and income approach to evaluate the non-market values and market values of different ecotype agricultural lands in different eco-regions. Thirdly, comparing the results of values of different ecotype agricultural land in different regions, and making a summary of the relationships between agricultural land ecological characteristics and the value of agricultural land. The research results are as follows:Firstly, it shows that the residents (including farmers and urban citizens) have cognized the non-market values of agricultural land base with the increase in agricultural land protection cognitions. According to the survey, about 78.09% of the respondents have realized the non-market values of agricultural land, recently 91.79% of the respondents have considered agricultural land protection as an urgent work in their region, and about 84.29% of the respondents have positive WTP to the protection of agricultural lands.Secondly, in this paper, using CVM to estimate the value to local households of preserving different ecotype agricultural lands, such as cultivated land, horticultural land, forest and wetland. according to the residents willingness to pays for protecting local agricultural lands, the total economic values of preserving agricultural land are 56.5846×10~8 RMB Yuan every year, almost the non-market value of cultivated land is 16893 RMB Yuan per hectare. And the non-market value of different ecotype agricultural land is correlated with the endowment of agricultural land resources. When an agricultural land is abundant, its non-market value is lower than the agricultural land which is scarce. Whereas, when one type of agricultural land is scarce, and its non-market value is higher than other kinds of lands. In the different eco-regions, the non-market value of the same type of agricultural land is also different. The non-market value of Wuhan where has entered into the process of rapid urbanization and characterized with ecologically fragile is higher than Jianghan plain and the Middle Hilly Areas of Hubei Province, where have more agricultural land than Wuhan. The mountain areas of western Hubei Province, where agricultural land is scarce and its ecosystem are sensitive. And the non-market value of agricultural land in the west mountain areas of Hubei Province is higher than Jianghan plain and the Middle Hilly Areas of Hubei Province.Thirdly, based on the responses of 896 valid questionnaires of households, we got the detailed and actual data which reflected the inputs and outputs of agricultural production. And according to it, using income approach to evaluate the different type of agricultural land in wuhan, in Jianghan plain, in the Middle Hilly Area of Hubei province, and in the west mountain areas of Hubei province. The result shows that the market value of agricultural land is related to the endowment of agricultural land and the system of farming.Fourthly, integrating the results of CVM and income approach, we can evaluate the total value of different type of agricultural lands in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Jinmen, Yuchang and Hubei province. Nowadays, the total non-market values of agricultural lands are 2456.23×10~8 Yuan, which including cultivated land, horticultural land, forest and wetland. It is almost 40.67% of the whole province's GDP in 2004. Among that, the proportion of paddy field, dry cultivated land, horticultural land and wetland's non-market value in their total value is 8.54%,10.14%,13.64% and 5.48%. The non-market value is an important part of agricultural land resource values. The proportion of non-market value is related to the region's level of economic development, its ecological and environmental condition, and the endowment of agricultural land. The region with rapidly speed of agricultural land loss and fragile ecological system of agricultural land, its proportion of agricultural land's non-market value is higher than the proportions of those regions where have more agricultural land. And when the type of land is scarce, its proportion of non-market value is higher than the proportion of the agricultural land is abundant.Fifthly, in this paper, the author analyzes the agricultural land use change and its value change in recent years.It shows that the loss of cultivated land is increasing in the rapid process of urbanization and industrialization. The value of cultivated land in whole province loss 442.53×10~8 Yuan, it is almost 47.05% of the agricultural GDP in 2004. However, influencing by the policy of ecological restoration and agricultural structure adjustment, the areas of forest, horticultural land and wetland are increasing, so the non-market value of agricultural land adds 7.53×10~8 Yuan in Hubei province.Sixthly, we use Logit model and regressive equation model to analyze the related factors which influencing the respondents will and payments for preseving agricultural lands. Socio-economic variables of the respondents such as environmental attitude, anticipation of agricultural land loss, age, sex, income and family labors significantly influence the willing of respondents and the values of the WTP. This is consistent with the economic theory and verifies the reliability of the CVM.Seventhly, the relationships between agricultural land ecological characteristics and.. its market value in different eco-regions have showed that in the same region the market value is depended on the system of farming, the endowment of agricultural land and the condition of irrigation. Take the rice as the norm crop of paddy field, the wheat as the basic crop of dry cultivated land, using Grey incidence analysis to evaluate the properties of the outputs of paddy fields and dry fields. And it shows that, the endowment of agricultural land, the construction of agricultural land, land form and the photo-temperature productivity of rice are the main ecological factors which influencing the outputs of paddy fields. However, only has Climate Productivity and the endowment of agricultural land significantly influenced the outputs of dry fields. Cluster analysis also shows that the market values of different eco-regions are being diversity. The output of paddy fields is decrease from plain to hill, to mountain. And the output of dry field is decrease from hill, plain, to mountain.Eighthly, comparing the different eco-regions' respondents' willingness to pays for preserving agricultural lands and the non-market values of different agricultural lands, it shows that the residents' WTPs and will are different with ecological conditions, the endowment of agricultural land and the level of economic development of region. Among different ecotype of agricultural lands, the respondents" willingness to pays for preserving cultivated land is stronger than other agricultural lands. And in the eco-regions where with rapidly speed of agricultural land loss and fragile ecological system of agricultural land, or with scarce agricultural land and its ecosystem is sensitive, the respondents" willingness to pays for preservation agricultural lands or willingness to accepts for improving the agricultural lands are more higher than those respondents" willingness to pays or willingness to accepts, where agricultural land is more abundant and its ecosystem is better. For example, it is showed that at metropolis or in the west mountain areas of Hubei Province, respondents" average WTP or WTA is higher than the average WTP or WTA in Jianghan plain and the Middle Hilly Areas of Hubei Province.Lastly, comparing the findings with that of Constanza's, whose research by evaluating the value of global ecosystem services in 1997 were very authoritative. In his research, the ecosystem services' value of cultivated land was 92 dollar per hectare per year, the ecosystem service' value of forest was 302 dollar per hectare per year, and the wetland's service value was 8498 dollar per hectare per year. And through the comparison, it shows that the non-market value of cultivated land is close to Constanza's value of cultivated land ecosystem service. However, the non-market value of wetland is six to one for his research. The non-market value of agricultural land at metropolis is close to Constanza's services' value of agricultural land at globe. So we can see that the non-market value is correlated to the level of economic development.At the end of the dissertation, some suggestions for rational preservation and utilization of agricultural land were put forward. These actions are to improve the supervision mechanism for preserving agricultural land, to set up agricultural land protection fund, to analyses the value of basic farmlands and to put forward to form compensation mechanism for preserve agricultural land. At the end of this paper, the author discusses some issues which come from the valuation methods and the limits of data, points out the future work for this research.