Comparative Study On Cultivated Land Conversion In Different Economic Areas Of Chongqing

Cultivated land conversion is a necessary process in the social economic development. Due to undergoing rapid urbanization and industrialization, the phenomenon of land conversion is very conspicuous in China. Cultivated land conversion has led to cultivated land decrease. China has a large number of population and per capita cultivated land is less than one-third of the the world's average level. The phenonment of decreasing cultivated land and insuffient food supply will become serious in the future in China. Therefore, Chinese govement has made policies to protect cultivated land, and Premier Wen Jiabao stressed that the total amount of farmland in China should be more than 120 million hectares. Cultivated land conversion plays an important role in the rapid economic growth of China, but it also results in negative effect on food security. Many people concern how to harmonize the contradiction between economic growth and cultivated land conservation. So, it is important to study on cultivated land conversion for cultivated land protection and land resource sustainable use.Based on the above analysis, this paper chose three counties in different economic areas of Chongqing as case studies, namely Beibei, Rongchang and Youyang counties, which represent Metropolitan Advanced Economic Sphere, West Chongqing Economic Corridor, Ecological Economic Zone in Three Gorges Reservoir Area. By applying the methods of contrastive analysis , taking the sustainable cultivated land resources use as a guide , combining the theory of regional economics, economic geography, econometrics, resources economics and land resources science,the paper make research on cultivated land conversion by the method of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The dissertation is composed of four parts. First, the author reviews the relative theories and evolvement study both at home and abroad, and introduces the background, purpose and meaning of the theme, the reason for choosing the target area, the research focus, the structure of this paper, and research methods. Second, the author introduces the meaning of cultivated land conversion, theory model, and the driving mechanism, and researches on driving forces of cultivated land conversion by Principal Components Analysis. Third, comparative analysis of cultivated land conversion' characteristics, construction land intensive use in sample areas, and socio-economic impact caused by cultivated land non- agriculturalization. Finally, the author builds a Model of Allowable Conversion to forecast the quantity of arable land allowable for conversion into construction land uses by 2020.The paper draws the following conclusions: (1) Cultivated land conversion is affected by many factors, among which human factors are the major ones at present. (2) Because of the region's natural economic and social differences, the characteristics of farmland conversion vary among different regions. In new construction land, the proportion of cultivated land conversed to constrution land is closely related to land use structure within the region. Farmland conversion rate in developed areas is larger than that in underdeveloped regions. For exmaple, the conversion rate in Beibei is larger than Rongchang and the one in Rongchang is larger than Youyang. It's of great differencein cultivated land changes in different economic areas. The main change is the transition of cultivated land into industrial land and urban land,which reaches 898 hm~2, accounting for 67.74% in Beibei; the main change is the transition of cultivated land into urban land,which reaches 399 hm~2, accounting for 54.99% in Rongchang; the main change is the transition of cultivated land into transportation land and water conservancy land,which reaches 489 hm~2, accounting for 73.51% in Youyang. (3) The level of intesive utilization of constrution land in developed regions is higher than the undeveloped regions. For example, the level of Beibei is higher than Rongchang and the level of Rongchang is higher than Youyang. Howerver, this gap between different regions has been decreasing slowly . (4) The different characteristics of cultivated land convertion have led to different economic and social impact. The rate of contribution of farmland conversion to economic development and grain output loss in Beibei is higher than Rongchang and Youyang. The process of non-agricultural population growth is in pace with the process of cultivated land conversion on the whole in Beibei, and the growth of non-agricultral population lag behind the farmland conversion in Rongchang, while the non-agriculturalization of agricultural population is complete out of step with the cultivated land conversion in Youyang.(5) The projection results from our model shows that the quantity of cultivated land allowable for conversion into construction land is 2849.35 hm~2 in Beibei by 2020, the quantity is 2829.15 hm~2 in Rongchang and 4904.59 hm~2 in Youyang by 2020.Finally, the paper puts forward some polices to achieve the goals of sustainable land use and food security in the process of integrating rural and urban development of Chongqing.