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Impacts of Cultivated Land Conversion on Environmental Sustainability and Grain Self‐sufficiency in China
Author(s) -
Tan Shuhao
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
china and world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.815
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1749-124X
pISSN - 1671-2234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-124x.2008.00115.x
Subject(s) - arable land , stock (firearms) , sustainability , agriculture , productivity , cultivated land , agricultural economics , land use , natural resource economics , agricultural productivity , china , land development , agricultural land , agroforestry , ecosystem services , environmental science , business , geography , ecosystem , economics , ecology , economic growth , archaeology , biology
Using provincial data, the present paper examines the impact of cultivated land conversion on agriculture and the environment. It is found that the grain production center is gradually moving towards more fragile and water scarce areas, putting more pressure on the environment. Land conversion caused large losses in ecosystem service values in the 1990s, but large scale ecological restoration programs have been implemented since 2000 to compensate for such losses. The ecological restoration programs are concentrated in regions with relatively low land productivity, whereas cultivated land conversion usually takes place in areas with relatively high land productivity. Newly‐cultivated land, especially that in areas marginally suit for agricultural production, is likely to have much lower productivity levels than the original cultivated land. Because the stock of potentially cultivable land is almost exhausted, China's grain self‐sufficiency policy can only be maintained by preserving the available stock of arable land and increasing its productivity in a sustainable way.