Research On The Relationship Between Farmland Conversion And Economic Growth In Shaanxi Province

As part of the efforts to implement the west development strategy, Shaanxi Province is inthe stage of rapid economic growth and transformation, because of its fast industrializationand urbanization, which is now in heavy demand of construction land, and leads a largeincrease in farmland non-agricultural area. Economic growth and cultivated land conversionprocess are great issues related to management of land resource, food security, sustainabledevelopment of society and economy. Therefore, study on dynamic evolution relation andinteraction between cultivated land conversion and economic growth, especially on influenceof economic structure variables on the need of cultivated land conversion, of Shaanxiprovince, a western province relatively late in its development, is very important. This studywill provide scientific evidences to its reasonable regulation, to coordinate the relationshipbetween quantity of urban construction land and cultivated land, and the contradictionbetween the cultivated land conversion process and economic development. Besides, thisstudy will have significant meaning in generating regional development strategies on societyand economy, and building up a resource saving, pro-environmental society.This article starts from the concept and essence of farmland conversion, focuses on therelationship between economic growth and farmland conversion. The farmland conversiontheory (including scarcity theory, opportunity cost theory, the equilibrium of supply anddemand theory and sustainable development theory) and economic growth theory (includingthe classical theory, modern theory, new classical economic growth theory and new economicgrowth theory) are used as a baseline for the study. In this paper, the main research methodsare qualitative description method, time series analysis method and the econometrics model.In the beginning，it gives a detailed introduction about economic aggregate, economicstructure and survey of land and farmland conversion in shaanxi province, then comparesdevelopment trend of farmland conversion and economic growth. In the following part itadopts the Unit root test,co-integration analysis, error correction model test,granger causalitytest to analysis the dynamic evolvement rules and short-term effects among the cultivatedland conversion, urbanization and economic growth. The interrelationship between economicgrowth and cultivated land conversion will be discussed from two aspects: on the one hand,we choose economic aggregate, economic structure variables (industrial structure, investment and consumption level, fiscal revenues and expenditures and the income of urban and ruralresidents) and cultivated land conversion to build a measurement model based on Kuznetscurve. Then the model is tested and optimized. The conclusion is that it follows Kuznets curve.On the other hand, we make a function between construct production factors (includingcapital, labor, land) and total economic output (GDP) based on trans-log production functionmodel. Contributions of production factors to economic growth from2000to2010arecalculated, and solow residual method is used to calculate total factor growth. At lastaccording to the above analysis, conclusions are drawn. And this chapter puts forward somepolicy and proposals to control the farmland conversion reasonably, increase the contributionrate of farmland conversion to economic growth, promote the harmonious development ofeconomy in Shanxi Province.The main conclusions are as follows:(1) Shaanxi province is in the stage of rapid economic growth, but farmland conversionfluctuates. High economic growth rate and huge growth has accelerated the industrializationand urbanization, however farmland area is not stable, which is mainly due to theimplementation of the country’s ecological restoration plan.(2) There are different dynamic effects of economic growth, urbanization and farmlandconversion in long-term, short-term and causality in Shaanxi Province. In the long run, therapid development of economy increases farmland area demand; higher urbanization willreduce farmland conversion speed, improve the efficiency of land in Shaanxi Province toachieve reasonable land spatial layout. In the short run, farmland conversion has a weakimpact to economic growth and urbanization, while the economic growth has acceleratedurbanization and farmland conversion.(3)The relationship between economic aggregate and farmland conversion shows"up-down-up" and conforms to the cultivated land characteristics of kuznets curve. For theeconomic structure elements, there are different degrees of influence on farmland conversion.(4) The rates of factors contribution to economic growth are different. capital is thelargest rates of contribution, the labors occupy a certain share, non-agricultural land areacontribution shows increasing trend. total factor productivity is relatively low and volatility.