Gains and losses of farmland associated with farmland protection policy and urbanization in China: An integrated perspective based on goal orientation

The Requisition-Compensation Balance of Farmland (RCBF) policy remedies the situation where valuable farmland becomes occupied for non-agricultural objectives during the rapid urbanization in China. However, there has been little systematic and provincial research on the RCBF policy. This study explores the establishment of an optimized and differentiated RCBF policy, adapted to regional resource endowments, socioeconomic developments based on the current policy system. We evaluated the holistic performance of gains and losses of farmland in Jiangsu Province from 1995 to 2015. The aims of this framework include the well-known “quantity-quality-ecological-yield” balance and a significant but undervalued farmland quality improvement object. We compared the differences between gained farmland and lost farmland using the quantity balance index, quality balance index, ecosystem service value benefits-and-losses method, and grain yield spatialization method, respectively. The structural transformation of “dry land to paddy” has been used to evaluate quality improvement. The evaluation results revealed that the challenges of “more occupation than compensation” in quantity have existed for a long time. Additionally, some ecological land was exploited to replenish the farmland, resulting in the unsustainable phenomenon of “dual development and dual loss.” Moreover, the average productivity and average utilization intensity of the gained farmland were superior to those of the lost farmland. This confirms the grain yield gap could be narrowed by increasing farmland utilization intensity. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that a low percentage of farmland in Jiangsu Province had improved in quality and that significant improvement was required. Based on these findings, we encourage Jiangsu Province to focus on improving the quality and productivity of farmland to precisely achieve “quality against quantity and yield balance” to address the quantity imbalance and the resulting ecological risks. •We propose a new evaluation framework for gains and losses of farmland based on policy-goal orientation.•The off-site farmland supplementation policy should be implemented at proper scale.•Increasing the cropping frequency is effective for ensuring grain yield.•Farmland protection policies adapted to regional resource endowment and socio-economic development should be developed.