Evaluation of Cultivated Land Use Efficiency with Environmental Constraints in the Dongting Lake Eco-Economic Zone of Hunan Province, China

Abstract

The rapid urban and industrial development in China has put pressure on the limited cultivated land resources. In ecologically fragile areas, such as the Dongting Lake Eco-economic Zone, land pollution and waste emissions from agricultural production cause irreversible damage to cultivated land. Thus, a method to assess the sustainability of cultivated land use efficiency (CLUE) is explored. Using the panel data of 25 districts in the province from 2007 to 2017, this study incorporates agricultural non-point source pollution and carbon emissions into undesirable outputs of cultivated land. The SBM(Slack-based Measure)-undesirable model was applied to measure the spatiotemporal characteristics of CLUE under environmental constraints. This study finds that CLUE with environmental constraints is significantly lower than CLUE without environmental constraints, and the degree of the impacts of the constraints differs among regions. Second, from 2007 to 2017, the average CLUE of the province showed a downward trend in each year; this is due to the side effects of redundant inputs and undesired outputs. Third, in 2017, the CLUE of the Dongting Lake Eco-economic Zone was high in the west and low in the east, and the redundant inputs of CLUE were livestock, fertilizer, and pesticide. The study concludes by recommending some policies.

Regional Disparities and Influencing Factors of Eco-Efficiency of Arable Land Utilization in China

“…Moreover, arable land utilization has a two-way output effect of producing food products and emitting agricultural pollution [17]. If the negative effects cannot be systematically considered when constructing the evaluation system of arable land use efficiency, it will inevitably cause deviations between the measurement results and the actual situation [38]. To address this problem, scholars have attempted to comprehensively consider the impact of carbon emissions and other environmental pollutants when assessing arable land use efficiency [17,[39][40][41][42].…”

“…Considering the negative effect of carbon emission in the process of arable land utilization, scholars have included carbon emission as undesirable output into the evaluation system of arable land utilization efficiency, and systematically measured the actual level of arable land utilization in different regions [16,25,42]. In the process of high-intensity arable land utilization, the ecological and environmental issues of arable land have gradually emerged [19,43], and the non-point source pollution in the process of arable land utilization has gradually attracted the attention of scholars [17,38,41].…”

The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Agricultural Productivity: From the Perspective of Digital Transformation

“…However, China’s huge population pressure and rapid urbanization have caused the overuse of land resources [ 4 ]. In addition, the long-term abuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has caused serious damage to the agricultural environment and low agricultural productivity [ 5 , 6 ], hindering the sustainable development of agriculture. Therefore, improving the agricultural environment is important in improving agricultural productivity and avoiding a food crises [ 7 ].…”

The Spatiotemporal Evolution Characteristics of Cultivated Land Multifunction and Its Trade-Off/Synergy Relationship in the Two Lake Plains

“…The economic contribution and social security functions of high-efficiency agricultural development regions are emphasized more. Due to the proximity to cities, rivers, and lakes, the rapid expansion of urbanization and industrialization, and the resulting impact on the natural environment [ 92 ], cultivated land fragmentation has increased, agricultural pollution is relatively severe [ 93 ], and the ecological adjustment level and landscape carrying function are low [ 94 ]. In general, this subregion must innovate the cultivated land production and management mode and vigorously develop high-value-added urban agriculture, high-efficiency ecological agriculture, and green organic agriculture, utilizing the cultivated land resources, regional conditions, and advanced agricultural technology of the entire region [ 95 ].…”