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Land consolidation (LC) is a widespread form of rural planning and is often presented as an important tool for mitigating land degradation. We therefore decided to make a systematic review of the effects of LC projects implemented under different natural and socio-economic conditions. Our results show that there is a major dichotomy in the understanding of LC. Studies from some parts of the world, e.g., Africa and South-east Asia, mostly report on LC projects aimed principally at creating larger fields to facilitate management. Studies from other regions, notably from Europe and China, describe LC as a complex form of planning that includes various types of land management measures. The effects of LC projects on land degradation are strongly linked to the type of project. Within the sample of reviewed studies, the effect of LC projects on land degradation was ambivalent, and projects not including land management measures even tended to contribute to land degradation. Conversely, in studies where LC projects involved specific land management measures, LC had a positive effect on most land degradation types. The results of our study indicate that LC projects can help significantly to mitigate land degradation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Land consolidation is essential in China for improving land use efficiency and supporting rural public space governance. Previously, the implementation of land consolidation projects (LCPs) had been mainly led by governments in China. In recent years, the Chinese government vigorously promoted land consolidation, and land consolidation in the corporation-leading mode (CLM) has emerged. This study focused on investigating the performance of CLM projects and the difference in performance levels between the CLM projects and the government-leading mode (GLM) projects. Based on the improved extensible matter-element model, the performance levels of 14 LCPs in GLM and CLM of Jianghan Plain, Hubei Province and related impact factors were analyzed. A set of evaluation indices was selected based on the "process-based thinking and logic". Results showed that: (1) performance levels of the 14 LCPs are different, most of the projects in the GLM have ordinary or poor performance, while most of the projects in the CLM have excellent or good performance; (2) factors affecting the performance levels of LCPs are also different in the two modes. The main influencing factors in the CLM were the poor access to field roads, insufficient shelterbelt planting, and low land reclamation efficiency, while the insufficient shelterbelt planting, low annual output value of farmland and grain production capacity, low increase rate of agricultural labor production, and low land reclamation efficiency were the main influencing factors in the GLM; (3) comparative analysis of the two modes revealed that LCPs in the CLM have clear investment directions, high output benefits, and obvious advantages in the development of modern agriculture when compared with the GLM. To achieve improving the performance levels of LCPs, policy makers should actively innovate the implementation mode of LCPs and encourage all kinds of agricultural corporations to participate in land consolidation.

Irrigation has been applied on a large scale for the improvement of grain yield per hectare and production stability. However, the dryland-to-paddy conversion affects the ecological environment of areas of long-term dry farming, especially soil microorganisms. Little attention has been paid to the changes in microbial communities and the interactions between their populations in this process. Therefore, in this paper, the compositions and diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities were explored through a combination of high-throughput sequencing technology and molecular ecological network methods using bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS. The results showed that: (1) both the abundance and diversity of soil bacteria and fungi decreased in a short time, and the abundance of Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Olpidiomycota varied greatly. (2) Compared to dry land, the modular structure of interaction networks and interspecific relationships of bacterial and fungal communities in paddy soil were simpler, and the network became more unstable. A cooperative relationship dominated in the molecular ecological network of bacteria, while a competitive relationship was dominant in the network of fungi. Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were the dominant bacterial species in dry land and paddy field, respectively. Ascomycota was dominant in the fungal communities of both dry land and paddy field. (3) The change in soil environmental factors, such as pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM) and available potassium (AK), directly affected the soil microbial community structure, showing a significant correlation (p < 0.05). These environmental factors also influenced the dominant microbial species. Microorganisms are the most important link in the carbon and nitrogen cycles of soil, and a large-scale dryland-to-paddy conversion may reduce the ecological stability of regional soil., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Agricultural reforms, land consolidation, and the abandonment of livestock farming effects grassland ecosystems worldwide. Utilising data from four medium-sized livestock farms across different regions in Lithuania, we assess floristic composition, productivity, and grass quality in both permanent grasslands and leys. Our findings reveal significant differences in flora diversity, with 120 species identified in permanent grasslands compared to only 20 in leys. Additionally, dry matter yield was notably higher in leys (13.97 t ha−1) than in permanent grasslands (5.66 t ha−1), underscoring the productivity potential of leys. The crude protein levels remained stable across both types, but leys demonstrated significantly lower neutral detergent fibre content, indicating better forage quality. However, the high biodiversity of permanent grasslands supports ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using provincial panel data from 31 provinces in China's mainland regions from 2000 to 2020, this study calculates the provincial agricultural diesel technical efficiency based on the Data Envelopment Analysis Slack-Based Measure (DEASBM) model and the average agricultural diesel consumption per hectare for full mechanization. It constructs indicators to measure the level of farmland suitability for agricultural machinery operations (FSAM), analyzes the impact of FSAM on agricultural diesel technical efficiency using a fixed-effects model, and explores the specific mechanisms through which FSAM influences agricultural diesel technical efficiency using a mediation effect model. The research conclusions are as follows: 1) In general, provinces with lower levels of FSAM tend to have lower levels of agricultural mechanization and higher average agricultural diesel consumption per hectare for full mechanization, and vice versa. 2) Due to the continuous iteration and upgrading of agricultural machinery and the ongoing promotion of high standard farmland construction work, China's agricultural diesel technical efficiency has shown an upward trend from 2000 to 2020, with significant growth achieved after 2017, averaging an annual increase of 8.26% from 2017 to 2020, far exceeding the 1.78% increase from 2000 to 2016. 3) If the level of FSAM is improved from 0 to 1, it would enable an additional 10.06 hectares of farmland to be fully mechanized per ton of agricultural diesel, indicating a direct effect of 10.06 hm²/t on the enhancement of agricultural diesel technical efficiency. However, the upsizing of agricultural machinery equipment driven by higher FSAM levels increases the complexity of operations and the weight of machinery, leading to increased agricultural diesel consumption and reduced agricultural diesel technical efficiency, creating a masking effect. Consequently, the total effect of enhancing FSAM from 0 to 1 decrease from 10.06 hm²/t to 6.75 hm²/t. Based on these findings, the following policy recommendations are proposed: 1) Actively promote the transformation of farmland to enhance its suitability for agricultural machinery operations. As larger farmland plots with smaller slopes and better accessibility for tractor roads are more conducive to agricultural machinery operations, leading to higher agricultural diesel technical efficiency during operations and field transfers, efforts should be intensified to transform farmland to enhance its suitability. Current high-standard farmland construction focuses more on "ensuring harvests despite droughts and floods" while neglecting the adaptability of farmland to agricultural machinery operations, hindering the improvement of agricultural diesel technical efficiency. Therefore, in the construction of high-standard farmland, land consolidation measures such as "merging small plots into larger ones, transforming short plots into long plots, and reducing the slope of the land with high gradient" should be strengthened to facilitate efficient agricultural machinery operations and movements, thereby promoting the enhancement of agricultural diesel technical efficiency. 2) Develop lightweight agricultural machinery technologies. This study indicates that the large-scale power structure of agricultural machinery and equipment has a masking effect on the improvement of agricultural diesel technical efficiency by enhancing FSAM, impeding further improvements. The primary reason is that while agricultural machinery with high horsepower offers higher operational efficiency, the majority of these machines are constructed from steel. Consequently, the heavier the machinery, the greater its horsepower, leading to increased agricultural diesel consumption. It is advisable to minimize the overall weight of agricultural machinery while ensuring strength, safety, and operational effectiveness to reduce agricultural diesel consumption and carbon emissions. 3) Continuously develop green agricultural machinery equipment and technologies. Research and development investments in new energy agricultural machinery and biodiesel-powered agricultural machinery should be increased, and mature green agricultural machinery equipment and technologies should be promoted. Agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policies should appropriately favor these equipment and technologies to accelerate the pace of energy substitution and gradually resolve the conflict between agricultural mechanization development and the "dual carbon" targets at the root. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of protein-rich food consumption among impoverished rural households in Rwanda. Data from the Rwanda Institute of Statistics, gathered nationally from a random sample of 9,709 households in 2018, was utilized for a comprehensive analysis of the food security and vulnerability survey. Given the dependent variable’s nature, a diverse econometric approach was employed to identify the factors influencing the weekly consumption of key protein-rich foods (milk, meat, and beans) in Rwandan families. An instrumental variable technique was applied to assess the impact of a unified land use policy on the consumption of protein-rich foods in Rwandan households, considering the lack of a direct relationship with welfare outcomes in theory. The results indicate that land consolidation significantly influences the consumption of meat and pulses. Additionally, cattle ownership has a notable impact on milk and pulse intake. In light of these findings, we recommend that the government and development partners enhance support for farmers, particularly by providing subsidized farm inputs and increasing the distribution of cattle to eligible low-income households.

Traditional small‐holder agricultural landscapes in southern China are being consolidated to increase mechanisation levels in agriculture, but it is unclear how this influences rice arthropod communities in these landscapes.Here, based on a six‐year study in 20 rice fields, we evaluated the impact of land consolidation on arthropod communities, crop damage, and rice yield. We also analysed how effects of land consolidation were moderated by the proportion of large semi‐natural habitat patches and insecticide use.We found that, compared to consolidated fields, rice fields in traditional farmlands had a higher abundance and family richness of natural enemies, but a similar abundance of rice pests. Land consolidation did not significantly interact with the proportion of large semi‐natural habitat patches or insecticide application, in terms of affecting arthropods. The proportion of semi‐natural habitat reduced the negative effect of insecticide application on key rice pests, but no equivalent interaction occurred for natural enemies.Synthesis and applications: Land consolidation can have negative impacts on the abundance and richness of natural enemies, but not pests in small‐holder rice systems, and these impacts are independent from insecticide application and proportion of semi‐natural habitat in the landscape. We recommend the implementation of agri‐environmental measures or re‐establishing field margin vegetation during the consolidation process to mitigate these potential negative effects, although trade‐off between enhancing crop yields and preserving rice arthropod biodiversity should be considered. We encourage future research to focus on the detailed assessment of the function of linear habitats for a better understanding of the impact of land consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Engaging in contract farming represents a crucial avenue for developing countries to integrate small farmers into modern agricultural practices. Existing research believes that contract farming offers a promising opportunity for fostering sustainable agricultural development. However, insufficient attention has been directed toward investigating the varying impacts of different organizational models within contract farming on farmers' transition to green production practices. Methods: This study investigates the impact of contract farming on green technological efficiency of farmers using survey data from 719 wheat growers in Shandong Province, China. The propensity scorematchingmethod andmultiple mediation effects models are employed for empirical analysis. Results: The organizational model plays a pivotal role in determining whether participation in contract farming can improve the green technological efficiency of farmers. Participation in an integratedmodel demonstrates a significant effect on improving green technological efficiency, whereas participation in a quasi-integrated model does not show a significant improvement. Integrated contract farming can improve green technological efficiency through expanding the degree of land consolidation and enhancing the level of productive service, whereas quasi-integrated contract farming improves green technological efficiency only by enhancing production intensification. As an economic incentive measure, the effect of contract purchase price on strengthening the enhancement of green technological efficiency in the quasi-integrated model is moderate only when the contract purchase price exceeds the local average selling price of wheat by more than 19.3%. Conversely, the moderate effect of farmers' dividend income in the integratedmodel remains consistent, with higher dividend incomes correlating with a stronger moderating effect. Discussion: The impact of contract farming on green technology efficiency correlates significantly with the organizationalmodel. Compared with the quasi-integrated contract farming model, the integrated model distinctly excels in advancing farmers' green technology efficiency, evidenced by its ability to consolidate fragmented land, provide productive services, and offer economic incentives. Therefore, to unlock the latent potential of contract farming in driving agricultural green transformation, a shift toward organizational models with higher levels of integration is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to elucidate the historical justification for protection and restoration efforts in China while also examining the theoretical underpinnings of ecological conservation and restoration. Utilizing a literature review method, logical reasoning method, and inductive summarizing method, the historical and theoretical frameworks of territorial spatial ecological conservation and restoration are elucidated, leading to the following conclusions: (1) The ecological protection and restoration of national land space represents an advanced form of land remediation; however, they differ in terms of objects, principles, goals, and measures. (2) Territorial space ecological protection and restoration is historically unavoidable due to the current phase of societal development, driven by the natural environment and the necessity to establish an ecological civilization. (3) To implement territorial spatial ecological protection and restoration effectively and rationally, it is essential to comprehend its systematicity, territoriality, dynamics, and scientificity. By clarifying its historical and theoretical rationale, we can achieve a deeper understanding of its current relevance. This can effectively inform practical efforts in territorial spatial ecological protection and restoration.

The rice–crayfish co-culture system, a representative of Agri-aqua food systems, has emerged worldwide as an effective strategy for enhancing agricultural land use efficiency and boosting sustainability, particularly in China and Southeast Asia. Despite its widespread adoption in China's Jianghan Plain, the exact spatiotemporal dynamics and factors influencing this practice in this region are yet to be clarified. Therefore, understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors of the rice–crayfish fields (RCFs) is crucial for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system, and optimizing land use policies. In this study, we identified the spatial distribution of RCF using Sentinel-2 images and land use spatiotemporal data to analyze its spatiotemporal dynamics during the period of 2016–2020. Additionally, we used the Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression model to explore the key factors influencing RCF's spatiotemporal changes. Our findings reveal that (1). the RCF area in Jianghan Plain expanded from 1216.04 km2 to 2429.76 km2 between 2016 and 2020, marking a 99.81% increase. (2). RCF in Jianghan Plain evolved toward a more contiguous and clustered spatial pattern, suggesting a clear industrial agglomeration in this area. (3). The expansion of the RCFs was majorly influenced by its landscape and local agricultural conditions. Significantly, the Aggregation and Landscape Shape Indexes positively impacted this expansion, whereas proximity to rural areas and towns had a negative impact. This study provides a solid foundation for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system and sustainably developing related industries. To ensure the sustainable development of rice–crayfish co-culture industries in Jianghan Plain, we recommend that local governments optimize the spatial layout of rural settlements, improve transportation infrastructure, and enhance regional agricultural water sources and irrigation system construction, all in line with the national strategy of rural revitalization and village planning. Additionally, promoting the concentration and contiguity of RCF through land consolidation can achieve efficient development of these industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural modernisation is a longstanding goal of China's Party-state. Since the early 2000s, it has pursued this goal through policies designed to facilitate land consolidation and support the expansion of large agricultural enterprises – 'New Agricultural Operators' (NAOs). In this paper we explore the effect of these policies on the livelihoods of a cohort of smallholder orange growers in the mountainous regions of Hubei province and the local political economy. An analysis of data from a 2019 survey of 266 households and interviews with villagers, agribusiness executives, cooperative leaders, and government officials, we find smallholder farmers are earning good incomes as independent commodity producers, withstanding attempts by local officials at land consolidation, and bypassing NAOs to self-determine their own modes of production and exchange. Our results speak to the ongoing debate about the future of smallholder farming in China, identify the strengths and limitations of recent state-centric analyses of agrarian transition, and re-iterate the pitfalls of the central government's agricultural modernisation agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Biology is the property of Instituto Internacional de Ecologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The increasing global population is leading to a decline in cropland per person, aggravating food security challenges. The global implementation of land consolidation (LC) has created new farmland and increased productivity. LC is a critical strategy in China for ensuring food security and gaining significant government support. This article investigates the impact of LC on farmland productivity in Sichuan Province in 2020. We utilize time series remote sensing data to analyze LC’s impact on farmland capacity. This study uses Sentinel and Landsat satellite data to calculate CumVI and assesses the LC project’s spatiotemporal evolution. To evaluate LC’s effectiveness, we create indexes for yield level and stability and employ Getis-Ord Gi* to identify spatial differentiation in LC’s impact. GeoDetector and GWR examine the impact of natural factors like elevation, slope, soil organic carbon, and rainfall on the effectiveness of LC. The research results show that: (1) After the implementation of LC, 55.51% of the project areas experienced significant improvements in agricultural productivity; the average increase rate of yield level is 7.74%; and the average increase rate of yield stability is 12.40%. Overall, LC is significant for improving farmland capacity. (2) The effectiveness of LC exhibits spatial differences and correlations in different areas. The main location for high-value agglomeration of yield levels is Nanchong City, while the northern part of Guangyuan City primarily hosts low-value agglomeration areas. (3) Natural conditions influence LC’s effectiveness. In terms of affecting the yield level of LC, the driving factors from high to low are SOC, elevation, slope, and rainfall. In terms of affecting the yield stability of LC, the driving factors, from high to low, are elevation, SOC, slope, and rainfall. LC’s effectiveness is influenced by different natural conditions that have different effects.

Aim of study: To examine the impact of solitary land leveling and its combination with cover cropping on the chemical and biological characteristics of paddy soil. Area of study: This research focused on paddy fields located in Guilan Province, situated in northern Iran. Specifically, two sites were chosen for investigation, where land leveling had been conducted 5 years and 2 years prior to this study, respectively. Furthermore, cover cropping was implemented during the second year after the latter area's land leveling. Material and methods: A total of 80 composite soil samples were collected, with 20 samples gathered from both leveled and unleveled plots at the designated study sites. Various soil chemical and biological properties such as organic carbon, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, exchangeable potassium, microbial respiration, and biomass carbon were quantified. Subsequently, a paired t-test was employed to analyze the impact of land leveling and the combined effects of land leveling with cover cropping on soil attributes. Main results: The study revealed that five years after land leveling, there was a significant decrease in organic carbon, total nitrogen, microbial respiration, and biomass carbon. In contrast, the area leveled and cover cropped for two years exhibited higher levels of these attributes compared to adjacent unleveled parcels. Research highlights: This study highlights the distinct effects that solitary land leveling and land leveling combined with sustainable practices like cover cropping have on soil attributes.

The increasing pressures of urbanization, climate change, and unsustainable agricultural practices necessitate innovative approaches to land management that can enhance ecosystem services while promoting agricultural productivity. This study presents a comprehensive assessment framework focused on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for consolidating agricultural land and facilitating ecological restoration initiatives. By integrating socio-economic and environmental indicators, the framework aims to guide decisionmaking processes, promote stakeholder engagement, and achieve sustainable land use outcomes. Through a combination of case studies and empirical analysis, the research highlights the effectiveness of NbS in addressing the dual challenges of agricultural efficiency and ecological integrity. The findings underscore the need for collaborative governance and adaptive management strategies to ensure the long-term success of such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land consolidation in rural areas is greatly influenced by a number of social, agricultural, and economic factors. They extend the time and complicate activities related to the implementation of this project. Land consolidation is a huge investment, requiring a good and up-to-date map. Up-to-date data that reflects reality are the basis for good and efficient land consolidation in rural areas. To improve the creation of a land consolidation project, the most appropriate solution would be to place all the necessary data to create a land consolidation project on "geoportals" websites. Providing data on the websites of geoportals in Poland and Finland in the form of a map portal would enable both visual and substantive analysis of spatial changes in rural areas. Therefore, this article pursues two main scientific goals. The first purpose of this article is to analyze the history and scope of land consolidation in Poland and Finland in order to learn the specifics of land consolidation in a given country. Comparisons and analyses were made on the basis of the authors' experience in Poland and Finland with land consolidation in the areas described. The second scientific goal of the article is to compare the availability of geospatial data in the context of the methodology of performing land consolidation in rural areas, which leads to increased energy efficiency in agricultural production by reducing the need for energy, especially fuel for agricultural machinery. The results from the table with a list of geoportals in Poland and Finland are a summary of the data available for free. Thanks to it, land consolidation contractors around the world will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with and perhaps use this data when creating a rural land consolidation project. Good land consolidation planning will lead to effective and economical use of rural space. This is part of the 2030/2050 strategy. Reducing agricultural production costs, lower fuel consumption, and a smaller carbon footprint. This is what Poland and Finland are striving for as countries belonging to the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland ownership is a critical issue for sustainable agriculture since it affects short-term productivity and the long-term stability of the sector. However, existing literature largely focused on immediately simplifying individual opinions through statistical methods, neglecting how implicit values could drive preferential ownership decisions. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the driving factors underlying decisions on farmland ownership, especially when there are cognitive factors that induce hidden constructs in individual preferences. This research, to observe the cognition and implicit values leading to ownership decisions, applied the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) with subsequent Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Taking the multiple case studies of three villages in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia, this study involved 40 farmland owners. The RGT revealed a staggering 85 constructs leading to six ownership decisions: keep farming, buying, joint farming, leasing, selling, and converting. In general, the driving forces were distinguished into landowners' household profile, sustainability-related (community and social conditions), spatial (farmland conversion and accessibility), and economic aspects. Based on PCA, "buying" and "keep farming" shared several driving forces and led to sustainable farming. In contrast, "joint farming", "leasing", "selling", and "converting" were found to threaten farming sustainability. In addition, this study offers in-depth insights into the driving factors of different preferential ownership decisions according to the cognition and implicit values of individual landowners, allowing policymakers and other stakeholders to tailor policies and strategies to context-specific farmland ownership issues in pursuing sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Iuridica Lublinensia is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In order to balance the needs of ecology, environment, and agricultural productivity with the aim of revitalizing rural areas, every local government unit that plans to implement a land consolidation (LC) project should decide where to start these projects as a priority. Traditionally, some of these decisions are made by groups of people connected to the consolidated area, while the others are made by groups of people from government departments, all trying to make the best possible decision. However, one of the most important conditions for the successful implementation of these projects, requiring large investment costs is, determining the priority areas for LC projects and allocating the investments to the appropriate areas meticulously. This study proposed a new model for determining priority areas for LC projects. In this study, by determining a set of criteria according to the parameters taken from 75 villages (Malopolska region, Poland), a model was developed for prioritizing LC projects using the Best-Worst Method (BWM), a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method. The proposed model enables the transparent identification and prioritization of villages for land consolidation by national and local authorities, effective management of resources, and equitable allocation of financial assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland fragmentation is a typical feature of arable land use in the economies dominated by smallholder production mode, and scientific evaluation of farmland fragmentation is an effective and crucial process to find and solve problems. Farmland fragmentation, as a kind of long‐standing physiographic landscape and agricultural economic phenomenon under the comprehensive effect of "human‐land‐property rights", not only contains the scale status and spatial distribution of cultivated patches but also is featured with farming and tenure right. However, the theoretical interpretation of the multidimensional characteristics of farmland fragmentation was insufficient, and it was rare to evaluate the farmland fragmentation based on plot scale. To this end, an evaluation framework of farmland fragmentation with four dimensions and 12 indicators was constructed in this paper. Moreover, regarding Minqing County located in China's southeast coast as a case, empirical research was thus conducted. The findings indicated that the physical properties of farmland patches were depicted through scale fragmentation. Spatial fragmentation represented the spatial distribution of farmland patches. Farming fragmentation revealed agricultural production and management differences while tenure fragmentation embodied the tenure rights segmentation induced by the land distribution system. Farmland fragmentation consolidation was an effective way to solve these issues, and some differential tactics should be conducted in accordance with the path of "zoning types–obstacle factors–consolidation directions–treatment measures". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated land quality (CLQ) is at the core of the trinity protection of cultivated land in China. Scientific evaluation of CLQ and identification of its obstacle factors are the foundation for the construction and improvement of the quality of cultivated land. The main objective of this study was to evaluate CLQ and identify its obstacle factors, and Quzhou County, an intensive agricultural region in the North China Plain (NCP), was selected as a case study. The evaluation index system of CLQ was constructed based on five dimensions, including climate condition, topographic characteristic, soil property, farming status, and environmental condition, by analyzing the logical evolution of elements, processes, functions, and quality of cultivated land. A methodological system based on the Weighted Summation Method (WSM) and the "1 + X" model was developed to evaluate the CLQ. Then, the obstacle diagnosis model constructed based on the Cask Law and relevant academic studies was used to identify the obstacle factors of CLQ. The results showed that the proportion of high-, medium-, and low-quality cultivated land in Quzhou County was 36.19%, 33.60%, and 30.21%, respectively, and the average grade of CLQ was 2.97, which was considered to be at a medium level. Moran's I of global spatial autocorrelation in Quzhou County was 0.8782, indicating a significant positive autocorrelation of the cultivated land quality index (CLQI). The main obstacle factors of CLQ in Quzhou County were soil profile constitution, irrigation guarantee rate, groundwater depth, and soil microbial biomass carbon. Therefore, based on the stable and dynamic characteristics of the obstacle factors, suggestions were provided to improve the quality of cultivated land in terms of strengthening the consolidation of cultivated land, transforming the concept of agricultural fertilization, and carrying out cultivated land recuperation. This study provides a new perspective on the cognition, evaluation, and identification of obstacle factors of CLQ, and the findings of this study can provide a reference for the consolidation and improvement of CLQ in the NCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land consolidation is one of the most important measures to increase the amount of cultivated land for grain security in China. Newly increased cultivated land (NICL) can then be fully utilized to promote rural vitalization. Therefore, it is very necessary to explore the utilization direction of NICL by land consolidation, particularly with the decrease in rural population and the giant change in residents' dietary structure. Taking Yanchuan County located at the Loess Plateau as an example, this study aims to analyze the land use changes and quality distribution of NICL under different geomorphic types, including the loess tableland, beam, gully, and slope. The results show that 20.69% of NICL was converted into non-cultivated land so far. Specifically, the NICL was mainly transformed into forest and grassland. Three reasons were attributed to making the NICL change into the forest or grassland. Firstly, the benefit of orchard farming was much greater than that of grain crop farming. Secondly, orchard farming was a labor-intensive agricultural production activity that required a lot of labor time. Thirdly, rural labor was limited in the process of urbanization. Correspondingly, much less time was spent using the NICL for grain production. The NICL was then converted into forest land in the loess gully, whereas, the grassland was distributed mainly in the loess gully, tableland and beam. Among them, the apple orchard land that was converted from NICL was distributed in the loess tableland and beam. The converted area was 156 062 m 2 from the NICL into the forest land in the loess gully, accounting for 82.27% of the total area of converted NICL into the forest land. Meanwhile, the converted areas from the NICL into the grassland in the loess gully, tableland and beam were 30 528, 37 358 m 2, respectively, accounting for 44.97%, and 55.03% of the total area of converted NICL into grassland, respectively. The converted area was 9871 m2 from the NICL into the apple orchard land in the loess tableland and beam, accounting for 92.62% of the total area of converted NICL into apple orchard land. Water resource dominated the differences in the transformation types of NICL at different geomorphic types. Even the high-quality NICL was converted into the forest land in the loess gully. Furthermore, 25.64% of the total area of the converted NICL into forest land was shared with a physical quality score of [700, 900) in the loess gully. It inferred that the NICL failed to use for the grain production in the loess gully, even with better water resources and high quality under the high benefit of orchard farming. But the NICL was abandoned and then converted into the forest land. Conversely, the NICL in the loess tableland and beam was used for orchard farming for more economic benefit. Anyway, the full utilization of NICL by land consolidation should be determined according to local conditions, as the rural population decreased and residents' dietary structure changed in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural land consolidation (ALC) is an effective tool to ensure national food security. The current ALC is a government‐led systematic behavior with regional characteristics, most ALC types are classified according to difficulty without considering the safety of soil systems, resulting in randomness in the site selection of projects. Given the soil complexity, ensuring soil security (SS) is a prerequisite for efficiently completing ALC. ALC that gives full play to the soil's functional advantages is an effective means of securing SS. The main goal of this study is to establish a new set of technical processes for classifying the types of ALC from the perspective of SS, including the agricultural SS evaluation system and the identification method of land‐improvable limiting factors. We used a generalized mean model to evaluate and analyze SS in multiple dimensions and identified 11 combinations of limiting factors in Wen County through the k‐means clustering method. The combination of the limiting factor clustering area with the SS spatial distribution patterns guided five ALC types. When compared using the spatial pattern comparison method, the new ALC guideline avoids the singularity of ALC types, selects the field patch as the evaluation and decision‐making unit, and improves the accuracy of land management measures. The results indicate that incorporating SS into ALC policy planning and decision‐making can provide complex and multifaceted knowledge of factors affecting SS, and potential solutions to make agricultural soils safer, enabling higher quality and sustainability of agricultural land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land consolidation (LC) is a widely used spatial land management tool. The most essential stage of the LC process is land reallocation, which comprises the exchange of property rights. For this reason, land reallocation may be a potential source of dissatisfaction among farmers, and thus, optimization techniques are continually being developed to minimize these dissatisfactions. The goal of this study was to develop a novel preference‐based artificial‐bee‐colony (ABC) algorithm for use in the land reallocation project for DOT village. In the study, the farmer preferences were prioritized. Specifically, 70% of the lands were preference‐based, with the remainder being random. Furthermore, the ABC algorithm's performance was assessed using three limit parameter (LP) values and two probability functions. The best success was attained when the LP was set to 50 and the roulette‐wheel probability function was employed. The success of land reallocation was defined by the occupancy rate in the blocks and the reallocation rates based on the preferences of the farmer's lands. The occupancy rate in all the blocks using the ABC algorithm was 95.54%, the full occupancy rate of blocks according to farmer preferences was 38%, and the land reallocation rate based on the farmers' preferences was 73%. The remaining lands were distributed to the block areas at random using the ABC method. Moreover, the success of the preference‐based population surpassed that of randomly formed populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social aspects of miscanthus cultivation have been investigated in a limited way in the scientific literature. Adopting existing frameworks for social life‐cycle assessment enables assessments to include numerous social aspects; however, the relevance of these aspects depends on the local context. This study aims to identify the most relevant social aspects from the farmers' perspective using a previously proposed framework for the assessment of the stakeholder 'farmer'. It is based on a case study for miscanthus production in Sisak Moslavina in Croatia. The existence of abandoned lands in Croatia presents an opportunity for the cultivation of miscanthus as a potential source of biomass for the production of bio‐based materials and fuels. The study seeks to assess the feasibility of cultivating miscanthus in the region, taking into account potential challenges and opportunities, as well as farmers' willingness to adopt the crop, and to understand the reasons behind land abandonment. We conducted a survey among 44 farmers in the region and used a scoring method to identify the most relevant social aspects. The aspects most valued by the farmers were health and safety, access to water, land consolidation and rights, income and local employment, and food security. Responses to the question of whether they would adopt the crop highlight the importance of an established market, good trading conditions and profitability of cultivation. The survey also enabled an understanding of farmers' preferences with respect to the production conditions of crops. The farmers regarded the provision of subsidies as one of the main factors that render a crop attractive. Opportunities for the adoption of the miscanthus cultivation include high yields and low input requirements. Barriers include land conflicts and land availability. Despite the opportunities for miscanthus development in the region, there are important challenges to consider for successful implementation of the crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural activities are the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon emissions from agricultural land use (CEALU) have become a hot issue across the world. Although there are some studies on the impact of high-standard farmland construction policies on carbon emissions, they focus on quantitative analysis and do not give sufficient consideration to the relationship between HSFC and CEALU. Therefore, in this study, by relying on provincial panel data of China for the period 2005–2017, the effect of the high-standard basic farmland construction policy on carbon emissions from agricultural land use per unit area and its regional differences were quantitatively analyzed using the difference-in-difference (DID) model. The results showed that: (1) China’s CEALU per unit area presented a fluctuating upward change, but the growth rate slowed down during the period 2005–2017, from 392.58 kg/ha to 457.72 kg/ha, with an average annual growth rate of 1.31%; (2) the high-standard farmland construction (HSFC) policy led a significant carbon emission reduction effect in agricultural land use and reduced the CEALU per unit area by 10.80% on average. With the promotion of this policy, its carbon emission reduction effect in agricultural land use presented an overall increasing change; (3) the carbon emission reduction effect of the high-standard farmland construction policy in agricultural land use was significant in central China, but non-significant in eastern China and western China.

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Land consolidation is important to increase the economies of scale in farming, and understanding its determinants and effects is useful for policy-makers to support rural transformation. In this paper, we examine the factors determining the voluntary participation of farm households in land consolidation and investigate its impacts on crop production costs, rural poverty, and rural transformation. Our results show that land consolidation is driven by farming efficiency. It significantly decreases land preparation and harvest costs, increases farm income, and reduces poverty. We conclude that land consolidation should be promoted to facilitate the redistribution of farm land from farmers who want to leave agriculture to those who continue to work in agriculture. The redistribution of farmland promotes agricultural transformation by reallocating labor from farm to non-farm sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unequal access to land, driven by decades of consolidation and concentration, is of increasing concern around the globe. This article analyzes growing farm consolidation and land concentration in the province of Saskatchewan, considered Canada's agricultural powerhouse. Drawing on Land Titles data and Census of Agriculture statistics, we document trends associated with a changing farm structure such as increasingly large land holdings, growing ownership concentration, and the emergence of a class of mega-farms. The largest farms, many of which have roots in family enterprise, are becoming increasingly complex in their organizational form and in their relationships to farmland, rented and owned. Our qualitative analysis allows us to provide an 'on the ground' view of these trends, including the multiple social and environmental changes wrought by on-going consolidation. We argue that these trends are contributing to a homogenization, flattening, and emptying out of Saskatchewan rural landscapes. Furthermore, we document increasing competitive pressures and land market dynamics that will likely continue to exacerbate land inequality and impede the entry of new farmers. Our research underlines the importance of new, more sophisticated ways of conceptualizing the family farm and its evolution from 'farm to firm'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of an urban-rural dual structure, governance structure significantly influences the fairness and sharing of land value increment profits from land consolidation in various regions. This paper develops a spatial-institutional analytical framework, reflects on the traditional government-led land quota planning management mechanism and advocates optimizing governance structures in land consolidation to facilitate urban-rural element flows and the sharing of land value increment profits. This paper selects two comprehensive land consolidation cases in the Fenghua District and Cixi City of Ningbo, representing government-led and village collective self-organized governance structures. The research shows that the Fenghua case adopts a government-led state-owned enterprise coordinated governance structure, which state-owned enterprises bear operational risks and the majority of profit sharing, while village collectives, as landowners, are insufficiently protected in benefit sharing. The Cixi case employs a government-embedded village-town governance structure, with the village collectives as the main operating body, allowing collective construction land to enter the market to ensure the sharing of community profits. Both governance structures promote the bidirectional flow of urban-rural land resource elements; the former significantly drives urban development, while the latter ensures better benefit sharing for village collectives. The research proposes that optimizing governance structures and improving land quota allocation mechanisms can further stimulate various entities’ participation in land consolidation and land value activation.

High-standard farmland construction is an important initiative in China that promotes sustainable agricultural development and ensures food security through land consolidation. This study measures the growth of agricultural total factor productivity (ATFP) in China, which is used to characterize the sustainable development of agriculture. Using provincial panel data from China and a continuous difference-in-difference (DID) model, the study examines the impact of high-standard farmland construction policy on ATFP growth. Results show that ATFP in China has an increasing trend with an average annual growth rate of 3.6%. The average enhancement effect of high-standard farmland construction policy on ATFP is 1.0%, which remains significant after various robustness tests. The positive effect of the policy on ATFP becomes apparent in the third year of implementation and shows a gradually increasing trend. The study also finds that the impact of high-standard farmland construction on ATFP is more pronounced in the central regions of China, the main grain-producing regions, and the regions with higher ATFP. High-standard farmland construction policy enhances ATFP by promoting agricultural technology change and technical efficiency. To promote the growth of ATFP and achieve sustainable agricultural development, China should continue to promote the construction of high-standard farmland and explore suitable construction models for different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the characteristics of agricultural production in Jiangxi Province, China, the changes of agricultural carbon emission and carbon fixation in various cities were estimated for the whole process of soil respiration, agricultural production, and crop output from 2010 to 2020. Then, a linear regression model was established based on the significant correlation between rice paddy planting and net agricultural carbon storage. By collecting and sorting out the geographic coordinate data of the agricultural land consolidation projects in Jiangxi Province, this study explored if the agricultural land consolidation could improve net agricultural carbon storage by increasing vegetation productivity, and ecosystem service value (ESV) by changing land use types. Also, relevant paths and evaluation methods were discussed, and a quantitative analysis was made. It could be concluded that, from 2010 to 2020, agriculture in Jiangxi Province realized net carbon sink, although there were ups and downs every year. In terms of land use types, cultivated land contributed the most to agricultural carbon sources and sinks in Jiangxi Province. As the key component of crop carbon storage in Jiangxi Province, rice paddy production accounted for 60% of the sown area, 90% of total crop output, and 93% of carbon storage among all the crops. Low-carbon rice farming was the best solution to the low-carbon development of agriculture in Jiangxi Province. By improving the cultivated land and plant production capacity, agricultural land consolidation projects in Jiangxi Province increased the net agricultural carbon storage by 709,600 tons of carbon (t C) per year, while increased the ESV by ¥230 million (CNY) per year through changing the land use types, such as converting the construction land into agricultural land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land fragmentation has contributed to low productivity with high production costs resulting from scattered farm plots. This study examined the implication of land fragmentation on food crop productivity. Primary data were collected from 118 farmers through a multistage and snowball sampling techniques using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, land fragmentation indices and Cobb-Douglas production function were used to analyse the data. Descriptive results show that an average farmer was 51.7 years old, 61.0% was male, and 75.4% was married with mean of 5 persons per household while 87.3% had formal education. About 86.4% derived major income from farming; a an average farmer cultivated 3.82 ha and had 19 years of experience. Majority (57.6%) of the farms was acquired through inheritance, 24.6% rented/borrowed, 17.8% purchased (17.8) while 69.5% operated two (2) or more parcels. Productivity was promoted by Age (0.471) and education (0.261) at p<0.01 while it was reduced by land fragmentation (-0.323) and distance from homestead to farm locations (-0.324) at p<0.05 and p<0.01 respectively. Therefore, cooperative farming should be promoted with subsidized inputs to enhance farm mechanization and productivity. Land consolidation policy should be used to partially restrict total land inheritance in order to reduce land fragmentation in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that biopolitical infrastructures have been central features of Turkey's ongoing colonization of Kurdish territories and populations and that the Green Revolution, despite its promise of progress and abundance, needs to be understood as part of this history of racialized state-making. In doing so, it joins recent literature that uncovers the local roots of the Green Revolution in domestic politics and land struggles in the global south, also revealing the entwined histories of accumulation and colonial and racial dispossession with agricultural norms and practices. Drawing on research in the records of the Economic Cooperation Administration, US Agency for International Development, Rockefeller Foundation Archives, Turkish parliamentary debates, and contemporaneous journals, I show how the Green Revolution can in fact be retold as an episode in a longer history of struggles over the distribution and use of land, the construction of agricultural infrastructures, and how these questions have been complicated by class, ethnic, racial, gender, and political divisions. The paper thus situates Turkey in a transnational history of agrarian development, while also relating the adoption of high yield seeds, pesticides, and grain cultivation to projects of land consolidation, internal colonialism, and racialized methods of state formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly forty years of development, China’s land consolidation policies (CLCP) have become an important tool for promoting rural revitalization and sustainable development. However, as a major land management policy, there is still a lack of quantitative evaluation research on its text. This paper establishes an evaluation system for CLCP using text analysis and the PMC-Index model. Based on a reasonable definition of the connotation of land consolidation, this paper collects 313 related policies issued by China’s central government from 1982 to 2022, using text analysis to sort out the characteristics of issuance time, policy types, issuing institutions, and cooperation networks. By combining the outcomes of text mining with the previous research results to set evaluation indicators for the PMC-Index model, it distinguishes between comprehensive policies and specialized policies and separately evaluates them. Then, the PMC-Surface is established to clearly display the calculation results. The results show that the evaluation scores of comprehensive policies and specialized policies showed an upward trend over time. This indicates that the content of CLCP is constantly being enriched and expanded. The evaluation scores for different dimensions of comprehensive policies are relatively balanced, whereas there are significant differences in the evaluation scores of various dimensions of specialized policies. Both comprehensive policies and specialized policies have weaknesses in policy functions, incentives and constraints, and implementation guarantees, so improvements may be needed in these areas in the future. This study provides valuable insights into the advantages and disadvantages of a single land consolidation policy in China.

Farmland ownership is a critical issue for sustainable agriculture since it affects short-term productivity and the long-term stability of the sector. However, existing literature largely focused on immediately simplifying individual opinions through statistical methods, neglecting how implicit values could drive preferential ownership decisions. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the driving factors underlying decisions on farmland ownership, especially when there are cognitive factors that induce hidden constructs in individual preferences. This research, to observe the cognition and implicit values leading to ownership decisions, applied the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) with subsequent Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Taking the multiple case studies of three villages in Kediri, East Java, Indonesia, this study involved 40 farmland owners. The RGT revealed a staggering 85 constructs leading to six ownership decisions: keep farming, buying, joint farming, leasing, selling, and converting. In general, the driving forces were distinguished into landowners’ household profile, sustainability-related (community and social conditions), spatial (farmland conversion and accessibility), and economic aspects. Based on PCA, “buying” and “keep farming” shared several driving forces and led to sustainable farming. In contrast, “joint farming”, “leasing”, “selling”, and “converting” were found to threaten farming sustainability. In addition, this study offers in-depth insights into the driving factors of different preferential ownership decisions according to the cognition and implicit values of individual landowners, allowing policymakers and other stakeholders to tailor policies and strategies to context-specific farmland ownership issues in pursuing sustainable agriculture.

Land consolidation is a powerful and effective tool in solving the fragmentation problem of agricultural lands to form a larger, more rational and efficient land for the farmers. The benefits of land consolidation projects are providing access to parcels, efficient use of water resources, real location of parcels, and reducing the costs of irrigation and drainage projects. Although not sufficiently successful, the land consolidation projects in Turkey had been initiated in 1961. This study was aimed to measure and assess the knowledge, expectation and attitudes of farmers on the land consolidation project planned to be implemented for some villages in Artova District of Tokat Province, Turkey. The study was carried out in Taşpınar and Aşağı Güçlü villages which were included in the consolidation program. In these villages, 62 farmers were selected by proportional sampling method out of 175 producers registered in the Farmer Registration System (FRS) and, face to face questionnaires were carried out with them. The results indicated that the producers support the project primarily due to the convenience in irrigation and increasing the efficiency of mechanization. Chi-square analysis revealed that the problems caused by disadvantages of fragmented land structure, importance of land integrity and the experience on a previous consolidation project area are important for the producers supporting the land consolidation project.

Land consolidation (LC) are introduced in agricultural landscapes to streamline mechanical field operations, and increase crop production. However, it may cause adverse effects on landscape patterns, biodiversity and potentially ecosystem services. To investigate the effects of varying intensity of LC (high-, medium-, and low-) on landscape patterns and biodiversity, we selected 30 paddy landscapes in the Chengdu Plain, China. The landscape change before and after LC were compared, and the diversity of vascular plants, rice planthoppers, carabids, spiders, and birds in landscapes with different LC intensities were assessed. The findings revealed that the proportion of semi-natural habitats significantly decreased following LC, while the mean field size significantly increased. As the increase of LC intensify, there was a significant decline in the abundance of spiders and the species richness of ground hunting spiders in 2021, while an increase in abundance of rice planthopper and species richness of omnivorous birds and carnivorous bird. However, the diversity of vascular plants, carabids and also their functional groups, remained largely unaffected. Except the species composition of spider in low- and medium-intensity of LC was significantly different than that in high-intensity in 2021, there were no significant differences were observed in the species composition of birds, carabid beetles, their respective functional groups, and vascular plants. Notably, the abundance ratio of spiders to rice planthoppers in landscape with medium-intensity of LC was significantly higher than in Low- and high-intensity, yet the NDVI of paddy fields showed no significant variation. Overall, a higher intensity of LC corresponded to decline diversity of spiders and increase of rice planthopper, thereby diminishing biological control within the paddy ecosystem. Nevertheless, with the preservation of the original semi-natural habitats and the overall landscape pattern, coupled with an appropriate increase in field size, landscapes with medium-intensity of LC emerged as the optimal strategy to harmonize the benefits of biodiversity and mechanized production. • Land consolidation (LC) increased field size and decreased semi-natural habitats. • High-intensity of LC had lowest spiders' diversity and most rice planthoppers. • Species composition of many taxa was similar across different intensity of LC. • There is no difference in NDVI of paddy fields across different intensity of LC. • Medium-intensity LC reconcile biodiversity conservation with mechanized production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract It has been shown that land fragmentation can negatively impact the efficiency of farming. Therefore, experts recommend land consolidation process, as a logical and workable solution to solve the problems and complications caused by land fragmentation. Land levelling and consolidation is a process of land reform that changes the construction of agricultural lands which leads to rural development through reforming farm management. However, a single plan cannot be applied to different regions, even though they might be in the same country. Hence, it is vital to investigate multiple factors in a certain region to devise the perfect consolidation plan. The present study, which is a survey-exploratory research, is conducted to provide a comprehensive model to implement the plan for levelling and consolidation of agricultural lands in the Abu Fazel region of Ahvaz, Iran. This research is an applied field research which uses both library and field methods to collect the required data. The study population is in Abu Fazel in the northeast of Ahvaz in Zargan region. The results of the study show that cultural, social, economic, policy-making, educational, agricultural and managerial factors have an effect on the participation of farmers in the levelling and consolidation of agricultural lands in the study area (p≥0.01). Also, there is a strong positive relationship between these factors and the farmers' participation in levelling and consolidation of agricultural lands (p≥0.01). Among these factors, it is observed that policy is main factor. Policymakers can play an effective role in land consolidation and macro development on the one hand and agricultural and rural development. On the other, by accurately assessing the interactive effect of land consolidation and related factors, along with the effects of this process on the evolution of agronomic systems.

This paper proposes a model for determining the most advantageous merger within a set of dairy farms. It uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the total technical efficiency improvement that the merger would produce and for decomposing it into a learning effect and a pure merger effect. A design of experiments has also been carried to test the effects of various factors (the total number of farms, the standard deviation of herd size, the percentage of farms exhibiting increasing returns to scale, the standard deviation of the current technical efficiency of the farms) on different response variables (the percentage of farms involved in the merger, the reduction of herd size and the efficiency improvement obtained by the merger). The results show that the disparity in the herd size of the farms in a region and the percentage of farms that exhibit increasing returns to scale increase the number of farms that enter into the most advantageous merger. The disparity of herd size also increases the number of cows that are not needed after the merger. Finally, the expected efficiency improvement increases with the total number of farms.

The aim of the research was to determine the needs with regard to land consolidation works and land exchange in the villages of the Haczów municipality. The analysis of the spatial structure was based on the calculated factors, and the following paper follows the applied statistical method to determine the necessary sequence of works in the studied area. It includes seven cadastral districts of the Haczów municipality, i.e. Jabłonica Polska, Wzdów, Jasionów, Buków, Haczów, Malinówka and Trześniów, located in the Brzozów district, in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship. The study had to take into account the structure of land ownership, land use, fragmentation of cadastral plots, and plots with no direct access to a public road. It also includes the calculation of the productivity index of arable land and grassland, as well as specific sizes of the occurrence of the external chessboard of land, i.e. differentials of local and nonlocal land. The analyses allowed us to determine, first, the factors characterising individual localities, and then to present the hierarchy of consolidation works and land exchange in the form of a ranking. The study applies the common method of zero unitarisation. This method consists in normalising diagnostic variables using feature range control. The obtained measures are included in the range [0.1]. The results represent the average optimal value of the measures obtained by each of the individual objects. The position in the ranking of urgency of the land consolidation works and land exchange depends on the size of the synthetic measure obtained. The analysis was based on data obtained from the Land and Building Register of the District Office in Brzozów. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The territorial distribution of land resources and the characteristics of rural organizational structures highlight different conditions for agricultural land consolidation. Knowing these conditions by identifying and correlating the favorable and restrictive factors reveals the feasibility of implementing consolidation projects at local level. The potential for consolidation in this paper takes into account the most important factors that influencing the implementation of consolidation projects in rural areas. The determination of these factors integrates aspects of competitiveness and the reduction of disparities in order to have a balanced development of rural areas and to ensure a real impact at the territorial level. The aim of this paper is to provide a conceptual model for estimating the potential for consolidation in rural areas in Romania by investigating the feasibility of implementing consolidation projects at the local level. The results consist in identifying the favorable conditions at the commune level that would facilitate the application of consolidation projects and the conditions specific to our country that highlight the main structural problems at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the paper is to form a mechanism of consolidation of the agricultural land on the basis of benchmarking of foreign experience. For research used methods of scientific abstraction, analysis, synthesis, comparison, monographic. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the offer the concept of the mechanism of consolidation of the agricultural land which is directed to creation of norm for constructive interaction of authorities and other participants of the land relations in the sphere of effective management of the agricultural land. The concept provides existence of legislative justification, definition of subjects of the mechanism of consolidation, decomposition of elements on organizational and economic, algorithmization of process of consolidation of the agricultural land. SMART-purpose of consolidation consists in providing the land owner with close located land plots of the established size in concrete time. The practical value of the work is that its results contributes improvement of management of land resources in agricultural industry on a national level, increase in economic interest in intensive agricultural production on a private level. The development of mechanism of consolidation of the agricultural land are recommended for agricultural organizations of various legal forms of ownership, executive authorities and management of the agro-industrial complex at the federal, regional, municipal levels. This mechanism are significant for scientific community in terms of development of the sphere of the land relations, defragmentation of the agricultural land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural land consolidation schemes have been implemented in Poland with European Union financial support since 2004. The improvement of farm layout facilitates the achievement of economic benefits by farmers. However, methods for full evaluation of the economic viability of consolidation projects are still lacking. The aim of the paper was an attempt at determining the cadastral effects of consolidation proceedings received by land owners and county administrator offices as a result of sorting out plot borders and land registration as a consequence of the consolidation procedure. Conducted analyses show that, in entities characterised by the most fragmented area structure of farms, the overall non-productive benefits obtained jointly by land owners and county administrator offices, as a result of completing the consolidation procedure, can exceed the total cost of carrying out consolidation. However, where farms are characterised by a larger average surface area of agricultural plots subject to consolidation and where the shapes of such plots are regular, much smaller benefits should be expected. The proposed solutions require further improvement and adaptation to local conditions. Still, even these pioneer studies clearly demonstrate that cadastral effects of consolidation proceedings can prove important in the discussion over the economic viability of consolidation projects. It can encourage land owners and county administrator offices to take advantage of consolidation schemes, and constitute a strong argument in favour of continuing to finance consolidation projects from public funds.

The “Two Mountains” concept of “green water and green mountains are gold and silver mountains” plays an important value-oriented role in the ecological transformation of land consolidation. In this study, Guangxi was divided into five consolidation zones in combination with relevant policies, and the evolution characteristics and change intensity of ecological-economic values before and after the three phases of land consolidation in Guangxi and each consolidation zone in 2010, 2015 and 2020 were explored by bivariate spatial autocorrelation, standard deviation ellipse, and linear regression equation. Finally, the ecological-economic values of each consolidation area, which were obtained separately, were standardized by z-score, and the standardized results were matched by dividing quadrants for analysis. The ecological-economic value matching states of each consolidation area are ecological-economic value coordinated development type (central karst basin area of Guangxi), ecological value imbalance type (southeast plain area and coastal hilly plain area of Guangxi), economic value imbalance type (northwest mountain area of Guangxi) and ecological-economic value low imbalance type (northeast hilly mountain area of Guangxi). The study aims to provide a theoretical basis for the planning and differentiated management of land consolidation in Guangxi and promote the ecological-economic value transformation of the region.

Land consolidation is an important means to optimize land-use structure and improve the level of intensive and economical use of land, and it is also a critical measure to coordinate economic and social development and promote cultivated-land protection. Therefore, the scientific advancement of land consolidation is of great significance to comprehensively promote rural revitalization and build a modern agricultural power. In this study, we explore the history of rural China’s land consolidation since 1949 and divide it into five stages: start-up stage (1949–1977), exploration stage (1978–1997), rapid development stage (1998–2007), quality improvement stage (2008–2018) and comprehensive consolidation stage (2019 to present). In different stages, there are obvious differences in national policy orientation on land consolidation. The differences in organization and implementation entities determine that government-led land consolidation, enterprise-driven land consolidation and villager-initiated land consolidation are the three main modes of rural land consolidation in China. To overcome the problems existing in current rural development and boost rural and agricultural modernization, it is urgent to adhere to planning-led and ecological priorities, build a diversified input pattern, innovate the public participation mechanism and strengthen full-process supervision, scientifically promoting the whole-region comprehensive land consolidation in rural China.

In this study, transportation-induced carbon footprint values before and after the consolidation projects in two areas with similar agricultural characteristics were calculated. The IPCC Tier 1 method recommended by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was used to calculate the carbon footprint. Furthermore, the effects of changes in road lengths and routes in these areas after Land Consolidation (LC) on the fuel consumption of tractors and, accordingly, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission values were also determined. As a result of the study, the carbon footprint value (GgCO2) decreased by 10% in the Fatih neighborhood and 33% in the Selimiye neighborhood after the land consolidation project. Carbon equivalent (CE) is used to measure the effects on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and corresponds to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In total, 490.21 kg CO2·ha−1 of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were mitigated. In light of these results, it can be concluded that LC can be considered a useful process in greenhouse gas mitigation strategy. Based on the values obtained from the study results, it was concluded that land consolidation contributed to reducing carbon footprint and increasing agricultural production and productivity in rural areas. The reduction in fuel consumption and carbon emissions in rural areas will contribute to reducing the adverse effects of air pollution and climate change.

High-standard farmland construction is an important initiative in China that promotes sustainable agricultural development and ensures food security through land consolidation. This study measures the growth of agricultural total factor productivity (ATFP) in China, which is used to characterize the sustainable development of agriculture. Using provincial panel data from China and a continuous difference-in-difference (DID) model, the study examines the impact of high-standard farmland construction policy on ATFP growth. Results show that ATFP in China has an increasing trend with an average annual growth rate of 3.6%. The average enhancement effect of high-standard farmland construction policy on ATFP is 1.0%, which remains significant after various robustness tests. The positive effect of the policy on ATFP becomes apparent in the third year of implementation and shows a gradually increasing trend. The study also finds that the impact of high-standard farmland construction on ATFP is more pronounced in the central regions of China, the main grain-producing regions, and the regions with higher ATFP. High-standard farmland construction policy enhances ATFP by promoting agricultural technology change and technical efficiency. To promote the growth of ATFP and achieve sustainable agricultural development, China should continue to promote the construction of high-standard farmland and explore suitable construction models for different regions.