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Arid Land Geography ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (5): 782-792.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2022.391

• Land Use and Agricultural Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Food security in the argo-pastoral ecotone of northern China from the perspective of grain yield

KONG Deming1,2(),HAO Lisha1,2(),XIA Siyou3,4,LI Hongbo1,2   

  1. 1. School of Geographical Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu, China
    2. Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu, China
    3. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Beijing 100101, China
    4. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2022-08-09 Revised:2022-11-10 Online:2023-05-25 Published:2023-06-05

Abstract:

The argo-pastoral ecotone of northern China is a key area for implementing the national food security strategy, and sustainable increase in grain yield is its main means. The spatial autocorrelation analysis is used to reveal the spatial variation and evolution characteristics of grain yield, which could be used as the basis for dividing farming regions and pastoral regions. A geodetector is then used to reveal the dominant factors and their interactions that control the spatial variation of grain yield, so as to explore the countermeasures to improve grain yield and food security. The main findings are as follows: (1) Grain yield in the argo-pastoral ecotone of northern China showed a relatively stable agglomerative distribution from 2000 to 2020, with the differentiation of natural environments as its basic controlling factor and social production conditions and their coupling levels strengthening the spatial variation characteristics of grain yield. (2) The hot spots of grain yield were concentrated in the plains of northeast and valleys of the southwest, cold spot areas were located in the central erosion and hilly areas, and the sub-hot and sub-cold spot areas in the north and south formed ring-shaped structures around the hot and cold spots. Based on this relatively stable pattern, the hot spot areas could be taken as the agriculture-suitable areas, the sub-hot and sub-cold spot areas as the agriculture-pastoral coupling area, and the cold spot areas as the ecological restoration areas. Based on this division, farming and livestock production could be developed according to the local conditions. (3) The growth pattern of grain yield in 2000—2020 has shifted from labor-led to technology-led approach. However, dissonance arose between labor, arable land, and technology as well as the application efficiency between various modern agricultural technologies. Therefore, “labor-land-technology” coupling development is proposed to sustainably improve grain yield and food security.

Key words: food security, spatial variation of grain yield, influencing factors, geodetector, argo-pastoral ecotone of northern China