Farmland Transitions in China: An Advocacy Coalition Approach

Xiaoping Zhou, Xiaotian Li, Wei Song, Xiangbin Kong and Xiao Lu
Additional contact information
Xiaoping Zhou: School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xiaotian Li: School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Wei Song: Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Xiangbin Kong: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Xiao Lu: School of Humanities and Law, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110169, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: In recent decades, global social and economic development has resulted in substantial land-use transitions. This was first observed with respect to losses of forested land, attracting worldwide concern. Forest transitions have an important impact on global ecology, whilst farmland transitions are key in terms of global food security. However, research into farmland transitions is lacking, particularly with respect to mechanistic analysis. Using data on China’s farmland areas between 1950 and 2017, we investigated the transitional characteristics, and triggers, of farmland change through linear regression analysis. Furthermore, based on the Advocacy Coalition Framework, we reveal the internal mechanism of these transitions. Our main findings are as follows: (1) between 1950 and 2017, China’s farmland area exhibited significant growth, and there were two transitions, namely in 1984 and 2004; (2) macroscopic economic and social changes determine the overall evolution of the farmland area; (3) there were two advocacy coalitions in the farmland transition policy subsystem—the farmland supplement and farmland consumption coalitions; (4) under the influence of macroscopic economic and social development, external events play a catalytic role in the transitions, and relatively stable parameters have an indirect but lasting effect in terms of transition outcomes.

Keywords: land change science (LCS); farmland transitions; advocacy coalition; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/2/122/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/2/122/ (text/html)

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:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:2:p:122-:d:487998

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().