Research On Machanism Of Farmland Preservation Under Urban Expansion

Maintaining adequate amount of agricultural land is essential to the vitality of human civilization, prosperity of national economy, and sustainability of social development. Depletion of farmland will lead to reduction of food supply, decrease of social welfare, and deterioration of ecosystem service functions. The recent worldwide food shortage alerts us once again the paramount importance of food security. Many countries all over the world are taking a variety of measures to preserve farmland, enhance agricultural production, and control urban sprawl in the process of industrial development and urbanization. With the largest population in the world and quite limited primary and potential farmland, China is facing serious challenges to protect her precious and limited farmland to ensure the adequate food supply and sustainability of economic prosperity and social development.In recent years, China has been undergoing accelerated economic growth and rapid urbanization. Despite having implemented a number of strict regulations for farmland preservation, China is experiencing continuous reduction of farmland and associated deterioration in farmland quality and ecosystem services. Addressing such problems requires the full comprehension of the causes, process, and impacts of farmland depletion in order to develop effective policies and methods for farmland protection. This research integrates theoretical analyses and quantitative methods to understand the causes and process of farmland depletion, and subsequently propose a set of recommendations for preserving China's primary farmland under urbanization. It first describes the serious farmland depletion problems from rapid urbanization in China, and then systematically analyzes the methods, mechanism, and policy of farmland protection in the United States. Subsequently, this study discusses the structure, behavior and goals of farmland protection systems at national, provincial, and local governmental levels. Simulating behaviors of different governmental entities and comparing the U.S. farmland protection policies, this study proposes a farmland protection framework that takes into account the following components: objective design, regulation mechanism, management incentives, and stakeholder participations.Specifically, integrating theoretical analysis, case studies, field survey, and Sino-U.S. comparisons, this study identifies the causes and process of farmland depletion under urban sprawl and concludes the following:(1)Urbanization is the main threat to farmland preservation. The increasing urban expansion causes continuous removal of primary farmland from agricultural production to other uses such as commercial centers, and residential areas. It also leads to deterioration in the farmland quality and ecosystem service functions. This process is accelerated by the huge gain in land value and twisted high market prices of the farmland under conversion. This has been confirmed through a case study of Xian City.(2) Comparisons of the Sino-U.S.farmland protection systems including regulations, financial incentives, governmental participation, organization, and approaches show a number of deficiencies in the current Chinese farmland protection system. These include emphasis on quantity objectives such as area of re-created farmland, with unclear quality and ecological objectives; lack of standard scope and procedure for farmland conversion; arbitrary determination of compensation allocation and sharing of economic gains from the increased land value among farmers, developers, and governmental entities; conflicting governmental regulations; and lack of unified and standardized implementation procedures. Stakeholders in the current farmland protection system exhibit different behavior and pursue varying or conflicting goals. The central government issues different and sometimes conflicting set of regulations and commits inadequate amount of resources to farmland preservation. Local governments tend to value short term behavior with large economic gains. With insufficient incentives, farmers often take passive actions in farmland protection. The aggregate effects of these stakeholder behaviors are deviation from and loss of efficiency in farmland protection.(3)Analysis of the participants in the survey of the willingness to pay by the conditional value method shows that all the participants including farmers, professionals, and governmental officials are aware of the importance of food security, ecology, and environment. Concerns about if the designated support (funding) will be put to the targeted uses are the No.1.factor that affects the willingness to pay of all the survey participants.Combining the aforementioned analyses, the innovations of this study include:(1)Development of a comprehensive farmland protection framework that takes into account quantity, quality, and ecology objectives in rational urban growth and farmland protection. Specific procedures are discussed in implementing regulations, financial incentives, and organizations to achieve goals of farmland protection.(2)Simulations of behaviors of central and local governments and farmers in farmland conversion by the game theory model. The results indicate that optimal policy is the improvement of incentive mechanisms by the central government, less removal of farmland by local governments, and active protection of farmland by farmers. Subsequently, this study recommends improvement to the current farmland protection incentive mechanisms. It proposes the concept of"farmland ownership rights"and discusses specific suggestions on changes in farmland rights, financial incentives, and allocation of rising land values for farmland protection. (3)Suggestion of the development and participation of the 3rd player– nonprofit organization in the farmland protection. The study also discusses the organization, responsibilities, and operation of such nonprofit organizations in preserving China's limited and precious farmland under rapid urbanization.