The Changing Characteristics of the Agricultural Land Use Intensity in China Based on the Production Cost
基于生产成本的中国农地利用集约度的变化特征

Based on the value cost databases of the main crops such as paddy,wheat,maize,cotton,flue-cured tobacco,sugarcane and beet,this paper studied the changing characteristics of the agricultural land use intensity in China during the period 1980-2002.The results showed that:(1)The degree of intensity of the agricultural land use has increased in the last two decades in China,but the degree of intensity declined three times in 1985,1993 and 1998.(2)The increase of the degree of intensity of land use was mainly resulted from the increase of the material cost,but the change of the labour force was the key factor leading to the change of the degree of intensity.(3)There was no essential difference in the intensity changes between different crops;but the characteristics of the degree of intensity of the cultivated land use changes differed from each other between different regions.(4)The increase of the land use intensity in undeveloped regions was greater than in developed regions.The increase of the land use intensity in the developed regions mainly depended on the input of the material cost,and the addition of the labour force cost is not evident.However,in the undeveloped regions the input of the labour force cost equalled the material cost,especially since 1991,the input of the labour force cost has exceeded the input of the material cost.In the period of the decline of the degree of intensity,the decline extent of land use intensity in the developed regions was greater than in the undeveloped regions.