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Land
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State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For...
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State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For Sustainable Land Management

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 15115

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bangbang Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Economics and Management, Northwest Agriculture and Forest University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: farmland protection and food security; cultivated land fragmentation governance and land consolidation; rural land reform and rural revitalization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xinyuan Liang

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
1. School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
2. Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
Interests: sustainable land resource use; farmland protection and food security; land space governance and decision making
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Lulu Qu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: integrated urban-rural development; rural sustainability and spatial governance; land use policy; land economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Increasingly uncertain and complex political (geo-conflict), natural (climate warming), and public health (COVID-19) environments pose a series of severe challenges to global food security. Ensuring future food system stability and realizing sustainable agricultural resource utilization has become the top priority for survival and development. Rural areas shoulder important responsibilities for agricultural production, and the explosive growth of population and cities has seriously threatened production space. This has prompted scientists to actively call for coordinating man–land–food systems to improve agriculture resilience and achieve sustainable development in rural areas. Notably, agricultural land systems are still transitioning, and farmland form, structure, function, and management in countries/regions are significantly different. There is an urgent need for a conceptual knowledge graph for solving agricultural land use issues to help scholars understand rural revitalization and provide references for sustainable land management.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights about sustainable agriculture land management strategies in rural areas, as well as linking land system science with interdisciplinary technical methods. Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Rural development and agriculture land use policy;
  • Farmland protection, utilization, and consolidation;
  • Livelihood response to changes in planting structure;
  • Sustainable livelihood and rural revitalization;
  • Urbanization stress on rural agriculture;
  • Rural land optimization constrained by food security;
  • low-carbon farmland uses and modern agriculture;
  • Resilience of rural and farmland systems.

The research topic is oriented towards the resilience improvement of rural land systems, involving macro policies, local evidence, environmental effects, social responses, etc. We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Bangbang Zhang
Dr. Xinyuan Liang
Dr. Lulu Qu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • farmland
  • intensification
  • resilience
  • rural
  • livelihood
  • policy
  • optimization
  • interdisciplinary

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 1135 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Farmer Differentiation and Environmental Cognition on Farmers’ Willingness to Withdraw from Rural Homesteads: Evidence from Two Pilot Areas in East Hubei, China
by Xiaowei Yao, Liqi Guo, Jinteng Li, Zhiyu Zhong, Lu Sun and Ying Wang
Land 2024, 13(8), 1201; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081201 - 5 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 969
Abstract
As a key prerequisite for the promotion of withdrawal from rural homesteads (WRH), farmers’ willingness to withdraw has long attracted extensive attention. This study proposes an analytical framework for understanding rural households’ WRH intentions integrating farmer differentiation and environmental cognition (EC), and identifies [...] Read more.
As a key prerequisite for the promotion of withdrawal from rural homesteads (WRH), farmers’ willingness to withdraw has long attracted extensive attention. This study proposes an analytical framework for understanding rural households’ WRH intentions integrating farmer differentiation and environmental cognition (EC), and identifies the influencing factors, using surveyed data of 842 rural households collected in two pilot villages in Hubei Province. Binary logistic regression was applied to explore the impact of factors and the influencing mechanism. The results show that both farmer differentiation and EC have a significant impact on their willingness to withdraw from homesteads. Most factors are positively related to villagers’ preference for WRH, except the age of household head, share of agricultural income in annual household income, and satisfaction with existing rural infrastructure. The findings emphasize the combined roles of farmer differentiation and EC in shaping the willingness of WRH, providing a basis for other regions to benefit from the experiences in pilot areas and thus better implement the policy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For Sustainable Land Management)
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21 pages, 7246 KiB  
Article
The Agro-Pastoral Transitional Zone in Northern China: Continuously Intensifying Land Use Competition Leading to Imbalanced Spatial Matching of Ecological Elements
by Kaige Wang, Xiangyu Zhao, Huihui Zheng, Bangyou Zheng, Yan Xu, Fengrong Zhang and Zengqiang Duan
Land 2024, 13(5), 654; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13050654 - 10 May 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 966
Abstract
The agro-pastoral transitional zone (APTZ) in northern China is a typical ecologically vulnerable zone and a comprehensive geographical transitional zone. Its land use pattern has significant type diversity and spatial interlocking, which is always related to the play of ecological barrier functions and [...] Read more.
The agro-pastoral transitional zone (APTZ) in northern China is a typical ecologically vulnerable zone and a comprehensive geographical transitional zone. Its land use pattern has significant type diversity and spatial interlocking, which is always related to the play of ecological barrier functions and the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Accurately grasping the spatial competition relationship and comprehensive geographical effects of land types of APTZ in northern China is a key proposition for achieving coordinated and sustainable development between humans and land. To explore the spatial competition mechanism and comprehensive geographical effects of land use in the research area, this study focuses on revealing the evolutionary characteristics of land use patterns based on the center of gravity migration model. Based on the process of land use center of gravity migration, the spatial competition relationship of land types is explored to reveal the evolutionary trend and basic characteristics of land use in the APTZ. The results show the following: (1) Cultivated land and meadow are the main land types of the APTZ in northern China, accounting for up to 70% of the total regional area. The spatial competition between the two land types is the main contradiction in regional land use competition. (2) Drifting of the center of gravity of cultivated land towards the northwest direction is an important land use migration feature of the APTZ in northern China. Between 1980 and 2020, the center of gravity of cultivated land shifted by about 2 km to the northwest, and the center of gravity of grassland shifted by 8–10 km to the southwest. (3) The center of gravity of arable land and grassland in the entire region is constantly approaching, which has decreased from 70.95 km in 1980 to 61.38 km in 2020. The intensification of their interweaving has led to more intense land use competition. Grasping the basic characteristics and driving mechanisms of land type competition is an important means to achieve sustainable spatial governance. (4) The scale differentiation and regional differentiation characteristics of gradient effects are significant, and it is essential to prevent the risk of mismatch between land use and natural endowments in the northeast and north China sections. The research has surpassed the traditional method of analyzing land use competition, and by introducing a centroid model to analyze the spatial mechanism of land use competition, it has expanded the methodology for expanding research in the field of land science and provided basic references for regional sustainable development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For Sustainable Land Management)
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21 pages, 10214 KiB  
Article
Urban Land Expansion Simulation Considering the Increasing versus Decreasing Balance Policy: A Case Study in Fenghua, China
by Yaya Jin, Jiahe Ding, Yue Chen, Chaozheng Zhang, Xianhui Hou, Qianqian Zhang and Qiankun Liu
Land 2023, 12(12), 2099; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12122099 - 23 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1405
Abstract
Under the political dominance of urbanization, the policy of increasing versus decreasing balance (IVDB) between urban and rural construction land has had a profound influence on urban land expansion in China. The purpose of this study is to reveal the impact of the [...] Read more.
Under the political dominance of urbanization, the policy of increasing versus decreasing balance (IVDB) between urban and rural construction land has had a profound influence on urban land expansion in China. The purpose of this study is to reveal the impact of the IVDB policy on the process of urban land expansion. Considering the transition process among different land use types under the IVDB policy, this study proposes two situations of urban land expansion. A future land use simulation (FLUS) model is applied to simulate the expansion process over three steps. A case study of Fenghua District in Ningbo City, China, shows the following: (1) In the first situation of village land directly transformed into urban land, the transformation is concentrated in the northern and western parts of Fenghua District. The expansion trends are particularly pronounced along existing urban land and main traffic lines. (2) In the second situation of village land reclamation for agricultural land and urban land occupation for agricultural land, the spatial differences in village land conversion to arable land or other agricultural land are relatively small, and the degree of concentration of arable land is significantly increased after reclamation. Urban land expansion mainly occurs close to Ningbo City. With the help of transfer quotas “produced” by other areas, expansion land can be balanced within Fenghua District. This research helps to shed light on the urban land use growth process and provides beneficial insights for stock spatial planning in China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For Sustainable Land Management)
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17 pages, 958 KiB  
Article
How Do Farmers Realize Their Rights on the Collective Land in Rural China? An Explanatory Framework for Deconstructing the Subject of Collective Land Ownership
by Yixiang Chen and Xiangmu Jin
Land 2023, 12(9), 1746; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12091746 - 8 Sep 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2391
Abstract
This study aims to deconstruct the collective, the subject of collective land ownership. With respect for the logic of the formation of collective land ownership, we propose the “transfreserve” mode to portray the division of rural land rights between the members and the [...] Read more.
This study aims to deconstruct the collective, the subject of collective land ownership. With respect for the logic of the formation of collective land ownership, we propose the “transfreserve” mode to portray the division of rural land rights between the members and the organization in the transformation from private ownership to collective ownership. This idea can be expressed as, prompted by the public power of the state, each farmer as the owner of rural land having to transfer part of his/her rights to the organization when associating, meanwhile each one still reserves part of his/her rights. We term the rights transferred to the organization as special legal person ownership, while the rights reserved by each farmer are called membership rights. The rights exercised by all members on the basis of membership rights are the autonomous rights. In terms of the property rights, such as the distribution right of the collective income, farmers have to participate in decision-making to determine how to form the allocation scheme in a fair and reasonable way by exercising autonomous rights; then, organization fulfills the collective will to meet the needs of its members by exercising special legal person ownership. As for the right to use public infrastructure on the collective land, farmers, as the members, can use it reasonably by its own will, which is the process of exercising membership rights. If farmers’ rights are infringed by other members, they can choose to negotiate with other members in a proper way. If farmers’ rights are infringed when the organization carries out operation activity in the land market, they can obtain compensation from the organization, and the compensation standard is determined by the decision-making. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For Sustainable Land Management)
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15 pages, 544 KiB  
Article
Effectiveness in Rural Governance: Influencing Factors and Driving Pathways—Based on 20 Typical Cases of Rural Governance in China
by Yu Peng, Xiaobing Peng, Xu Li, Mingyue Lu and Mingze Yin
Land 2023, 12(7), 1452; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12071452 - 20 Jul 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5143
Abstract
Effective rural governance is the foundation for achieving rural revitalization and promoting the modernization of China’s system and governance capacity in the new era. The elucidation of the influencing factors and driving pathways underlying effective rural governance has significant importance in facilitating the [...] Read more.
Effective rural governance is the foundation for achieving rural revitalization and promoting the modernization of China’s system and governance capacity in the new era. The elucidation of the influencing factors and driving pathways underlying effective rural governance has significant importance in facilitating the advancement of rural revitalization. Drawing upon the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this study introduces an analytical framework of “human actor dimension—non-human actor dimension”. The study employs the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparison Analysis (fsQCA) to explore the effective governance pathways within 20 typical cases of rural governance. The study reveals that a cooperative-based collective economy is a necessary condition for effective governance, while possessing a resource advantage is a core condition. Villager autonomy, local culture, and new technology are marginal conditions for effective governance, while the absence of elite participation fails to promote effective governance. The combination of human variables and resource compacts gives rise to “human actor-resource compacts” and “non-human actor-resource compacts”. The study further elaborates on the efficacious model of rural governance through three multifactor driving pathways: “human actor-non-human actor resource sparse linkage”. The research emphasizes the importance of fortifying rural governance and revitalization through the cultivation of relationships, enhancing government management systems, embracing technological innovation, supporting community economies, and advocating mechanisms that empower rural elites and talent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For Sustainable Land Management)
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17 pages, 12606 KiB  
Article
Farmland Dynamics and Its Grain Production Efficiency and Ecological Security in China’s Major Grain-Producing Regions between 2000 and 2020
by Ying Li, Xu Han, Bingbing Zhou, Ligang Lv and Yeting Fan
Land 2023, 12(7), 1404; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12071404 - 13 Jul 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1891
Abstract
Understanding the land use/cover changes associated with agricultural production is essential for food security in increasingly urbanizing areas. Such studies have been widely conducted in different regions of China; yet, its major grain-producing regions (MGPRs) remain less studied. To address this knowledge gap, [...] Read more.
Understanding the land use/cover changes associated with agricultural production is essential for food security in increasingly urbanizing areas. Such studies have been widely conducted in different regions of China; yet, its major grain-producing regions (MGPRs) remain less studied. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted analyses of the land use conversion matrix, spatial hot spots, decoupling, and index evaluation from a spatiotemporal perspective, to quantify the MGPRs’ farmland changes and its grain production efficiency and ecological security during 2000–2020. The results showed the following: (1) Farmland in the MGPRs experienced a net decline of 2.54 × 104 km2, with significant spatial heterogeneity in the area, extent, and speed of loss/gain. (2) Farmland gain came from mostly forest, grassland, and unused land, with hotspots in northeastern China, while farmland loss increasingly changed to construction lands, with hotspots covering east-central China and in the suburbs surrounding capital cities. (3) Grain production in the MGPRs increased by 1.6 times in the past 20 years, via its strong decoupling from farmland quantity in especially central-eastern China. (4) Land ecological security in the MGPRs was less secure but has been improving with non-homogeneous regional differences, while it demonstrated a spatial pattern of “higher security in the north–south and lower in the middle”. Our findings suggested that China’s MGPRs would continue to lose farmland and China’s food security should require a sustainable decoupling of grain production and farmland quantity while maintaining ecological security. This study has significant policy implications for farmland conservation in China’s MGPRs, as well as highlighting the landscape sustainability opportunities of urbanization-associated farmland loss in densely populated human–environment systems in general. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art on Agriculture in Rural Areas: For Sustainable Land Management)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Visualizing the Shifting Landscape: The Spatiotemporal Evolution of China's Rapeseed Production
Author: Liu
Highlights: Sustainable Agriculture: Our study optimizes rapeseed production layout, enhancing resource allocation and land use efficiency. Interdisciplinary Approach: Integrating data science with agriculture showcases technology's role in sustainable development. Visualization: Using BI tool, we present spatiotemporal evolution interactively. Practical Implications: Our findings guide decision-makers in improving agricultural practices, aligning with sustainable goals.

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