Quantitative Change or Qualitative Change: The Impact of Whole-Region Comprehensive Land Consolidation on Cultivated Land Security—Based on Panel Data from Townships in Zhejiang Province

Jin Li, Yongpeng Ding, Ming Jing (), Xiangyu Dong, Jiaxi Zheng and Luoyu Gu
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Jin Li: School of Business, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo 315100, China
Yongpeng Ding: School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
Ming Jing: Fudan Institute of Belt and Road & Global Governance, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Xiangyu Dong: School of Humanities and Law, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
Jiaxi Zheng: WTO and Hubei Development Research Center, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Luoyu Gu: School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-26

Abstract: Land consolidation is a crucial strategy for optimizing land use structure and ensuring cultivated land security and food safety. Since 2019, Zhejiang Province has been piloting and exploring Whole-Region Comprehensive Land Consolidation (WRCLC). However, there remains an insufficient understanding of the feasibility of WRCLC in ensuring cultivated land security and its potential for synergy with other policies. This study utilizes panel data from 707 townships in Zhejiang Province spanning from 2013 to 2022. By categorizing cultivated land security into two dimensions—quantity and quality—this study employs a double machine learning approach to evaluate the impact of WRCLC policies on township cultivated land security. The results indicate that implementing WRCLC significantly enhances both the quantity and quality of cultivated land. A heterogeneity analysis reveals that WRCLC is particularly effective in improving the quality of cultivated land in non-major grain-producing areas and low economic development areas. Furthermore, examining policy synergies indicates that agricultural mechanization and agricultural industry integration policies work well in conjunction with WRCLC, thereby enhancing both the quantity and quality of cultivated land. However, the synergy with rural tourism policies improves cultivated land quality without effectively increasing cultivated land quantity.

Keywords: whole-region comprehensive land consolidation; cultivated land; double/debiased machine learning; policies synergy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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