Evaluation on influence of land consolidation project on cultivated land quality based on agricultural land classification correction method

Abstract: Land consolidation projects could promote the cultivated land natural quality and improve the production conditions. It had certain value to study the influence of land consolidation project on cultivated land quality. In this paper, we took land consolidation project, which was constructed in the year of 2012, in Shanggao County of Jiangxi Province as the study area, and analyzed the influence of land consolidation project on cultivated land natural quality and production conditions. The land quality and production condition change was based on cultivated land grades before and after land consolidation on the basis of the last cultivated land quality grade annual updating results. Part of the factors which determined the cultivated land natural quality would be affected by the land consolidation project. In this study, the initial grading factors could be divided into two categories, the first were the stable factors, the attribute remained the same after the land consolidation project, and the second were the changing factors, the attribute changed after the land consolidation project. For these stable factors, in this paper, we took the original data directly. For these changing factors, we would collect the data after the land consolidation project through field investigation and indoor analysis. The weights and scoring rules of the natural quality grading factors stayed the same. Then we recalculated the natural quality index again. The canonical correlation analysis method was used to determine the land use correction factors from the influence factors of land consolidation project on the cultivated land production conditions. Then, we determined the weights of the factors on the base of Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The ratio of the scores before and after land consolidation was the land use correction coefficient and modified the original land use coefficient so that the revised land use index could be derived according to the original evaluation process. In the paper, we developed the cultivated land quality natural grade and the land use grade according to Agricultural Land Classification for Jiangxi Province. Then we compared and analyzed the changing situation of cultivated land quality grade before and after land consolidation. At last, in this paper, we used the multiple regression analysis methods to determine correction factors which had significant influence on the cultivated land quality. The land use correction factors were plots regularity, road network density, effective irrigation area index, distribution of the drought and flood. The results showed that the average natural quality grade were raised from 9.06 to 8.81 after the land consolidation, the general land utilization level increased 1.13 after the land consolidation. The average land use grade was raised from 6.03 to 4.68 after the land consolidation. The major influential factors of land consolidation project on cultivated land quality were organic matter content, soil pH, drainage, irrigation, plots regularity, road network density. The results demonstrated that the land consolidation projects could increase cultivated land quality and improve production conditions. It could accurately reflect the characteristics of the land consolidation project through the changing factors of cultivated land quality and the correction factors of land use. The method for agricultural land quality improvement and evaluation was feasible after land consolidation. The evaluation results could be used as the basis for the land management performance evaluation.