The agricultural land resources of China are relatively limited because of its large population.Therefore,balancing the land use for industrialization,urbanization,and food security is a big challenge.In recent years,rural hollowing in China has resulted in numerous of abandoned rural houses,and the areas with abandoned houses need to be restored into agricultural land with effective land consolidation techniques.This study used the method of benefit-cost analysis and the data collected through field surveys conducted in Yucheng City in the northwest of Shandong Province in March 2009,to examine how hollow villages (HVs) to be created and how to solve the problem.The qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate following results.1) The situation of HVs is becoming increasingly severe under rapid industrialization and urbanization in Yucheng City.2) Poor infrastructure in rural areas and incomplete urbanization are the main factors that have led to the rural hollowing in many major rural regions of China.3) In order to resolve the problem caused by HVs and increase agricultural land,reconstructing rural communities in the countryside is necessary.4) A new mechanism in the provision of compensation funds by developed regions to the villages in less-developed regions must be established.
A number of studies indicate that global climate warming has been increasing, especially in recent decades. Climate warming greatly affects global agro-production and food security-- becoming a hotspot of global environmental change. This paper proposes a structural and orientational framework for scientifically addressing climatic change impact on agroroduction. Through literature reviews and comparative studies, the paper systematically summarizes influencing mechanisms and impact of climate warming on such agro-production factors as light, temperature, soil quality and water environment. The impact of climate warm- ing on cultivation regions, cropping systems, crop pests, agro- production capacity, agro-economy and farm management is analyzed. Then, suitable climate-adapting agro-development strategies are put forward for different regions in China. The strategies are carefully selected from a repository of international tested climatic change countermeasures in agriculture at national or district level.
Income inequality among farmers living in different regions was an important form of territorial inequalities. Studying the territorial inequality of the net income per peasant was an emphasis of this paper, and Shandong Province was pointed as the case study region. By the help of logistic regression, it could be found that the special distribution of the net income per peasant in Shandong Province was affected by three factors： distance to No.308 National Highway, distance to the coastline in the east of Shandong Province, and urbanization rates. Based on the decomposition of Gini index, the net income per peasant was divided into four parts, and it was found that the income from family business and salary were the two major sources of income. As to the mechanism for income inequality, it was proved that urbanization was still the key factor. In order to reduce income inequality, the local governments should promote urbanization through improving road networks, such as building highways, which could connect rural areas with the major nodes such as big cities and the port cities in the east.
