Quantifying The Amount,Heterogeneity,and Pattern Of Farmland ——Implications For China’s Requisition-compensation Balance Of Farmland Policy

With the continuous progress of urbanization and industrialization,a large number of farmland is occupied and the contradiction between people and land is increasingly sharp.Under the current global changes and the increasing impact of human activities on farmland,it is especially important to protect cultivated land scientifically and effectively.As one of the strictest systems of cultivated land protection in China,requisition–compensation balance of farmland（RCBF）has undergone a process from "quantity balance" to "quantity-quality-ecological balance" and has already formed a relatively complete policy system.However,while the implementation of RCBF plays a positive role,it also brings a series of problems that pose potential threats to regional food security,ecological environment and socio-economic stability.Therefore,effectively exploring the practical and potential problems,analyzing the reasons for their formation and proposing targeted recommendations in the implementation of RCBF are conducive to the further improvement of the policy.It is also of practical significance to carry out farmland protection as well as sustainable development of agriculture and social economy in the future.This paper is based on land use status data,annual change data of farmland,farmland quality grade data and ground elevation data in Guangdong Province during 2011 to 2015.Then,the quantitative analysis of the quota,the spatial heterogeneity and the ecological landscape pattern of requisitioned and compensatory farmland were separately conducted.And according to the results of quantitative analysis,targeted policy recommendations were put forward combined with the existing implementation experience of RCBF projects and related policies for farmland protection.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:（1）During 2011 to 2015,although Guangdong Province has achieved the quantity balance between farmland requisition and compensation,the area of paddy field provided as compensatory farmland was about 13,700 ha less than that of requisitioned farmland.On the quality of farmland,the area of farmland with highest quality grades 1-2 provided as compensatory farmland was about 690 ha less than that of requisitioned farmland.Meanwhile,the quality of the compensatory farmland was 0.66 lower than requisitioned farmland.The phenomena of “superior occupation and inferior compensation” and “paddy field occupation and dry land compensation” were apparent in the study area in the implementation of RCBF.Local government should ensure that the acceptance of farmland compensation should be conducted strictly in accordance with national norms and clearly quantify each acceptance of farmland step by step.Furthermore,based on the results of “agricultural land classification and gradation”,local government should establish a unified regulation of farmland gradation conversion with a detailed operating process so as to achieve RCBF.（2）Due to the certain spatial span between requisitioned and compensatory farmland,the overall landscape fragmentation of farmland had intensified during 2011 to 2015 in Guangdong province and its sub-regions in the implementation of RCBF.The emergence of this situation was mainly due to the economic developmental differences of sub-regions.Therefore,the local government should require the units of farmland requisition to compensate farmland in the vicinity of requisitioned farmland as far as possible.And the distribution of the new and original farmland should be centralized.Meanwhile,local government could establish a specialized institution consisting of the departments involved in RCBF according to local conditions in order to reduce the repeated investment and strengthen the subsequent supervision and management of compensatory farmland.Besides,to promote positivity among local farmers,local government should strengthen policies that support and benefit agriculture to encourage farmers who are engaged in farming the compensatory farmland.（3）Although 37.6 thousand hectares of woodland and 7.4 thousand hectares of grassland were transformed into farmland in Guangdong Province during 2011–2015,98.77% of woodland and 97.20% of grassland were compensated as dry land.And due to lower cost,the exploitation of woodland and grassland has been the main way to compensate farmland in China.However,compared to land exploitation,compensating farmland and improving farmland quality by land reclamation and land consolidation are more beneficial to protect farmland and maintain the stability of the ecological environment.Therefore,a demonstration of the suitability of the available land resources and the impact on the ecological environment is necessary before farmland exploitation.And subsequent investment and supervision are indispensable to improve compensatory farmland.At the same time,local governments should determine the potential for urban and rural construction land to reduce the pressure for farmland exploitation.And the function of land reclamation and land consolidation should be fully emphasized,such as construction of high-standard basic farmland and promotion of medium-and low-yield farmland.