Study on the Agricultural Land Transfer Embodied in Inter-Provincial Trade in China

Abstract

The research on the land resources embodied in the inter-regional economic linkages is of great significance for the ecological compensation and sustainable use of the cultivated land. We constructed a model to estimate the agricultural land transfer embodied in inter-regional trade by using the agricultural land footprint model and the multi-regional input–output model. Taking China as an example, using a 2017 multi-regional input–output table and agricultural land and production data, we evaluated the agricultural land footprints embodied in the inter-provincial demand–supply chain in China and explored their characteristics, revealing the balance of income and expenditure that makes up the agricultural land footprint in each region. The results show that: (1) In 2017, China’s total agricultural land footprint was 557.63 million ha2. Developed areas such as Shandong, Guangdong, and Jiangsu in the East generally had a greater footprint than the underdeveloped areas in the west. Provinces with more agricultural land do not necessarily have larger agricultural footprints. (2) The Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry, and Fishing industry and the Food, Beverages, and Tobacco industry were the main two sectors that contributed to the agricultural land footprint for each province, accounting for more than 60% of the total agricultural land footprint in China. (3) The embodied agricultural land transfer between regions showed two main directions on the whole: one was from north to south and the other from west to east, reflecting the transfer law of movement from the less developed regions to those that were more developed.