A Study On Cultivated Land Protection Effect Of The System Of Control Over The Purposes Of Use Of Land In China

The Land Administration Law of the People's Republic of China revised in 1998 applied the system of control over the purposes of use of land, which is of great importance in China's land administration. This system is characterized by compulsoriness, seriousness, directness and authoritativeness, and with cultivated land protection as its core objective, it aims at remedying the defects of market-based instruments in the allocation of land resources and realizing the reasonable and sustainable use of land resources. The positive effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land in cultivated land protection has been acknowledged by the majority of theorists; however, doubts are also raised in the meantime. This dissertation examines the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land from qualitative and quantitative perspectives. Following this clue, the present study analyzes the current situation and the significance of cultivated land protection in China as well as factors obstructing cultivated land protection. On the basis of this analysis, the dissertation also puts forward solutions and suggestions in hopes of providing theoretical and empirical support for the implementation and perfection of the system.This dissertation comprises three parts:The first part is a preliminary study, which reviews the history and current situation of study on systems of control over the purposes of use of land both at home and abroad through literature review. This part introduces the background, objectives and main content of China's system of control over the purposes of use of land, followed by a brief analysis of the systems of control over the purposes of use of land in typical market economy countries (regions) and their implications to China. Special emphasis is put upon the analysis of the foundation of control over the purposes of use of land, i.e., overall planning for land utilization and the core content of control over the purposes of use of land, i.e., zoning for land utilization. Basic concepts such as land environment, land problem, the capital farmland, control and control over the purposes of use of land are clarified; on the other hand, a theoretical basis for cultivated land protection is formulated by expounding the theory for land rent, the modern theory for property rights, the theory for allocation of scarce resources, the theory for land use changes and the theory of sustainable development. In addition, the first part also demonstrates the overall situation of changes of the quantity of cultivated land in China as well as the regional differences and the change structure. Furthermore, this part points out the great urgency and strategic significance of cultivated land protection in our country from the perspectives of food safety, issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers, adjustment of agricultural structure, ecological structure, urbanization and public resources.The second part studies the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land and constitutes the body of this dissertation. (1) Theoretical analysis of the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land is conducted from the perspective of economics. This part reveals the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land and illustrates the function mechanisms of such means of control as direct control, tax institution and land property rights system through comparison of the change of land value under the resource allocation modes of zoning and market and through analysis of the gaming between agricultural land and urban land under market conditions and the allocation rule of agricultural land and non-agricultural land under control over the purposes of use of land. (2) A quantitative study of the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land in China is conducted on the basis of the Model of Dummy Variable, by using GDP, urbanization rate and investment in capital construction as variables. The analysis results suggest that there are noticeable decreases in the marginal cultivated land of GDP, urbanization rate and investment in capital construction, which proves that the control over the purposes of use of land is capable of impeding the decrease of cultivated land due to construction, the system of control plays a positive role in alleviating the contradiction between population and land amount, ensuring food safety and should be adhered to on a long-term basis. (3) A qualitative study of the inter-provincial differences of the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land is conducted by using the results of the Model of the Dummy Variable based on the investment in capital construction and the Indices of Cultivated Land Protection Effect (ICLPE) of the provinces and regions in China. The cultivated land protection effects of 30 provinces and regions are divided into four strata according to the comprehensive index. It is indicated that the cultivated land protection effects of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Tibet, Shaanxi and Gansu are excellent; those of Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan, Guangdong, Hainan and Xinjiang good; those of Tianjin, Liaoning, Jilin, Shanghai, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Qinghai average; and those of Beijing, Shanxi, Fujian, Shandong and Ningxia are below average. (4) A quantitative study is conducted on the potential of cultivated land protection effect, whose results suggest that Yunnan, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Guizhou have the largest potential, followed by Beijing, Fujian, Hebei, Henan, Ningxia, Shanxi and Sichuan (including Chongqing), whose potentials of cultivated land protection effect are above average in the country, the third class comprises Liaoning, Tianjin, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Heilongjiang and Jiangxi, which have considerable potentials of cultivated land protection effect and Tibet, Hainan, Qinghai, Guangdong, Xinjiang, Jilin, Hubei, Gansu and Hunan make up the fourth class, enjoying good cultivated land protection effects and having rather limited potentials.The third part analyzes the factors obstructing cultivated land protection, and at the same time puts forward solutions and suggestions for raising the cultivated land protection effect. This part begins with an analysis of the factors obstructing cultivated land protection from the perspectives of the quasi-public resource nature of cultivated land, the defects of the land income distribution mechanism, the obscurity of ownership of the agricultural land system, the high cost of cultivated land protection, the strong incentive in supply of land on the part of local governments and the imperfection of land use planning. On the basis of the analysis, solutions and suggestions are provided so as to raise the cultivated land protection effect: to optimize the ownership system of agricultural land, i.e., to establish a new ownership of agricultural land, to foster the agricultural land use right market and to pay attention to ownership registration and contract management; to reform the system of requisition land owned by collectives, i.e., to perfect the scope of requisition land, optimize the structure of requisition compensation for land and stipulate reasonable compensation criteria; to establish matching incentive and monitoring mechanisms by means of raising the comparative advantage of cultivated land and the cost of occupying cultivated land and reforming the assessment of officials' achievements; to enhance the use intensification of land for construction by promoting research of the use intensification of land for construction and raising the utilization rate of urban land, and improving village arrangement; to perfect the land utilization planning system, cope with the relationships between economic development and cultivated land protection, land renew investigation data and changed land surveying data, urban planning and land planning, the rigidity and flexibility of planning in a smart manner, and eventually enhance the fairness, scientificness and practicability of land utilization planning. Finally, this part conducts a case study of Jining City of Shandong Province. It demonstrates the ways of predicting the population, the urbanization rate, the utilization scale of land for construction, the area of cultivated land reserved and the area and rate of basic agricultural land protected with the last two serving as clues.The originality of this dissertation mainly lies in: (1) the methodology. It conducts a quantitative study of the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land by using the Model of the Dummy Variable. (2) the research content. This dissertation conducts a quantitative study on the cultivated land protection effect of the system of control over the purposes of use of land and the inter-provincial differences as well as the potential of the protection effect; a multi-dimensional analysis is made in the factors obstructing cultivated land protection and at the same time solutions are offered; the ways of predicting the area of cultivated land reserved, the area and rate of basic agricultural land protected in overall land utilization planning are demonstrated via a case study.Due to the lack of the author's capability and references, this dissertation is weak in the following aspects. First, it only investigates the cultivated land protection effect in terms of amount and fails to survey the protection effect in terms of quality. Second, no in-depth analysis of the inter-provincial differences of the cultivated land protection effect is made. Finally, the study on the potential of the cultivated land protection effect is raw and over-generalized.