IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i2p187-d88890.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Factors Driving Seasonal Farmland Abandonment: A Case Study at the Regional Level in Hunan Province, Central China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhonglei Yu

    (School of Geography, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Lei Liu

    (School of Geography, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Hua Zhang

    (School of Geography, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Jinshe Liang

    (School of Geography, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

Abstract

Farmland abandonment, including perennial and seasonal abandonment, is an important process of land use change that matters most to food security. Although there is a great deal of studies on farmland abandonment, seasonal abandonment, which is as serious as perennial abandonment, has attracted little academic attention. This paper takes Hunan Province in central China as its study area and uses a spatial regression model to examine the driving factors of seasonal farmland abandonment at the county level. Our results show that farmland abandonment has striking spatial relativity, and there are two clustering zones with a high index of farmland abandonment (IFA) in the Dongting plain and the basin in south-central Hunan, while a clustering zone of low IFA can be found in the mountains of southwest Hunan. Farmland abandonment at the regional level is negatively affected by the land productive potentialities, proportion of mechanized planting, ratio of effective irrigation, and distance to provincial capital, while it is positively associated with the variables mountainous terrain, per capita farmland area, and labor shortage. Additionally, farmland abandonment is also affected by adjacent areas through its spatial dependence. In short, seasonal farmland abandonment is also driven integratedly by the socioeconomic and environmental dimensions and spatial interaction of farm abandonment.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhonglei Yu & Lei Liu & Hua Zhang & Jinshe Liang, 2017. "Exploring the Factors Driving Seasonal Farmland Abandonment: A Case Study at the Regional Level in Hunan Province, Central China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-18, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:187-:d:88890
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/187/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/187/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manfred M. Fischer & Arthur Getis (ed.), 2010. "Handbook of Applied Spatial Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-642-03647-7, October.
    2. Tiechou Shi & Xiubin Li & Liangjie Xin & Xiaohong Xu, 2016. "Analysis of Farmland Abandonment at Parcel Level: A Case Study in the Mountainous Area of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-19, October.
    3. Prishchepov, Alexander V. & Radeloff, Volker C. & Müller, Daniel & Dubinin, Maxim & Baumann, Matthias, 2011. "Determinants of agricultural land abandonment in post-soviet European Russia," IAMO Forum 2011: Will the "BRICs Decade" Continue? – Prospects for Trade and Growth 1, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ionuț Săvulescu & Bogdan-Andrei Mihai & Marina Vîrghileanu & Constantin Nistor & Bogdan Olariu, 2019. "Mountain Arable Land Abandonment (1968–2018) in the Romanian Carpathians: Environmental Conflicts and Sustainability Issues," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Zhonglei Yu & Hua Zhang & Piling Sun & Yandi Guo, 2022. "The Pattern and Local Push Factors of Rural Depopulation in Less-Developed Areas: A Case Study in the Mountains of North Hebei Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-27, May.
    3. Qinhang Xu & Peixin Zhu & Liang Tang, 2022. "Agricultural Services: Another Way of Farmland Utilization and Its Effect on Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Xiaofeng Zhao & Yuqian Zheng & Xianjin Huang & Mei-Po Kwan & Yuntai Zhao, 2017. "The Effect of Urbanization and Farmland Transfer on the Spatial Patterns of Non-Grain Farmland in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Xuan Luo & Zhaomin Tong & Yifan Xie & Rui An & Zhaochen Yang & Yanfang Liu, 2022. "Land Use Change under Population Migration and Its Implications for Human–Land Relationship," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Michał Sobala, 2020. "Mountain Meadows and Glades of the Carpathians—Type or Element of Landscape? The Problem of Delimitation and Typology of Mountain Pasture Landscapes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Muñoz-Rios, Luis Alejandro & Vargas-Villegas, Jair & Suarez, Andres, 2020. "Local perceptions about rural abandonment drivers in the Colombian coffee region: Insights from the city of Manizales," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Wenguang Chen & Bangbang Zhang & Xiangbin Kong & Liangyou Wen & Yubo Liao & Lingxin Kong, 2022. "Soybean Production and Spatial Agglomeration in China from 1949 to 2019," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-17, May.
    9. Yemei Li & Yanfei Shan & Ying Chen, 2021. "Analysis of Farmland Abandonment and Government Supervision Traps in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-27, February.
    10. Yanwei Wang & Wei Song, 2021. "Mapping Abandoned Cropland Changes in the Hilly and Gully Region of the Loess Plateau in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, December.
    11. Wojciech Sroka & Bernd Pölling & Tomasz Wojewodzic & Miroslaw Strus & Paulina Stolarczyk & Olga Podlinska, 2019. "Determinants of Farmland Abandonment in Selected Metropolitan Areas of Poland: A Spatial Analysis on the Basis of Regression Trees and Interviews with Experts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-23, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ionuț Săvulescu & Bogdan-Andrei Mihai & Marina Vîrghileanu & Constantin Nistor & Bogdan Olariu, 2019. "Mountain Arable Land Abandonment (1968–2018) in the Romanian Carpathians: Environmental Conflicts and Sustainability Issues," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Raju Rai & Yili Zhang & Basanta Paudel & Narendra Raj Khanal, 2019. "Status of Farmland Abandonment and Its Determinants in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Uttam Khanal, 2018. "Why are farmers keeping cultivatable lands fallow even though there is food scarcity in Nepal?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 603-614, June.
    4. Wei Song, 2019. "Mapping Cropland Abandonment in Mountainous Areas Using an Annual Land-Use Trajectory Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-24, October.
    5. Chocholatá Michaela & Furková Andrea, 2017. "Regional Disparities in Education Attainment Level in the European Union: A Spatial Approach," TalTech Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 7(2), pages 107-131, October.
    6. Motoyama, Yasuyuki & Cao, Cong & Appelbaum, Richard, 2014. "Observing regional divergence of Chinese nanotechnology centers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 11-21.
    7. Rey, Sergio, 2015. "Bells in Space: The Spatial Dynamics of US Interpersonal and Interregional Income Inequality," MPRA Paper 69482, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Chih-Hao Wang & Na Chen, 2021. "A multi-objective optimization approach to balancing economic efficiency and equity in accessibility to multi-use paths," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1967-1986, August.
    9. Padovano, Fabio & Petrarca, Ilaria, 2014. "Are the responsibility and yardstick competition hypotheses mutually consistent?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 459-477.
    10. Atems, Bebonchu, 2013. "The spatial dynamics of growth and inequality: Evidence using U.S. county-level data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 19-22.
    11. Giuseppe Espa & Giuseppe Arbia & Diego Giuliani, 2013. "Conditional versus unconditional industrial agglomeration: disentangling spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity in the analysis of ICT firms’ distribution in Milan," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 31-50, January.
    12. Rosanna Salvia & Rares Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir & Sirio Cividino & Luca Salvati & Giovanni Quaranta, 2020. "From Rural Spaces to Peri-Urban Districts: Metropolitan Growth, Sparse Settlements and Demographic Dynamics in a Mediterranean Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-20, June.
    13. Manfred M. Fischer & Nico Pintar & Benedikt Sargant, 2016. "Austrian Outbound Foreign Direct Investment in Europe:A spatial econometric study," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-22, JUNE.
    14. Manfred Fischer, 2011. "A spatial Mankiw–Romer–Weil model: theory and evidence," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 47(2), pages 419-436, October.
    15. Wójcik - Leń, Justyna & Postek, Paweł & Stręk, Żanna & Leń, Przemysław, 2020. "Proposed algorithm for the identification of land for consolidation with regard to spatial variability of soil quality," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Huang, Kaixing & Yan, Wenshou & Huang, Jikun, 2020. "Agricultural subsidies retard urbanisation in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(04), January.
    17. Samantha Leorato & Maura Mezzetti, 2015. "Spatial Panel Data Model with error dependence: a Bayesian Separable Covariance Approach," CEIS Research Paper 338, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 09 Apr 2015.
    18. Mohl, Philipp & Hagen, Tobias, 2011. "Do EU structural funds promote regional employment? Evidence from dynamic panel data models," Working Paper Series 1403, European Central Bank.
    19. Cristina Raluca Gh. Popescu, 2020. "Sustainability Assessment: Does the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework for BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project) Put an End to Disputes Over The Recognition and Measurement of Intellectual Capital," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-22, November.
    20. Daniel A. Griffith & Manfred M. Fischer, 2016. "Constrained Variants of the Gravity Model and Spatial Dependence: Model Specification and Estimation Issues," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Roberto Patuelli & Giuseppe Arbia (ed.), Spatial Econometric Interaction Modelling, chapter 0, pages 37-66, Springer.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:187-:d:88890. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.