Assessing the coordination of ecological and agricultural goals during ecological restoration efforts: A case study of Wuqi County, Northwest China

Daojun Zhang, Qiqi Jia, Xin Xu, Shunbo Yao, Haibin Chen, Xianhui Hou, Jinting Zhang and Gui Jin

Land Use Policy, 2019, vol. 82, issue C, 550-562

Abstract: While the Chinese Grain for Green (GFG) policy has reduced the area of cultivated land in several regions in China, the program’s effects on Per Unit Area Productivity of Cultivated Land (PAPCL) are not clear. As the positive or negative contributions of GFG to PAPCL can vary with context, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the correlations between the program and crop yields in order to determine the best balance between environmental benefits and food security. In this study, Wuqi County in China’s Shaanxi Province was selected for a case study. Multi-source data were integrated in the Geographic Information System platform, and geographical weighted regression was then performed to spatially analyze the effects of the GFG on the improvement of PAPCL (GoP); with GoP as the dependent variable, we further analyzed the role of environmental variables in promoting the contribution of GFG to the improvement of PAPCL. Our findings are as follows: (1) GFG can better contribute to the PAPCL improvement in the villages with higher elevation, poor infrastructure, and denser populations, and thus, GFG could be further implemented in these areas. (2) In the area where GFG performed well, agricultural machinery and agricultural chemicals can be utilized less frequently, as they have similar effects on the improvement of PAPCL, but the increase of forest-based diseases and insect pests is possible. (3) The intensity of the GFG itself is negative compared to the GoP, which indicates that the implementation of the GFG in the study area may be excessive in improving the PAPCL.

Keywords: Grain for Green (GFG); Agricultural productivity; Ecological restoration; Geographically weighted regression; Policy evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837718317332
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:550-562

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.001

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().