Effect of household behaviors on cultivated land quality in hilly areas of Sichuan basin, China

Household behaviors are the leading driving forces for the change of cultivated land quality, and their responses to cultivated land quality will affect the actual productivity. Cultivated land quality was assessed by BP neural network in Dazu County, Chongqing. The assessment results showed that paddy lands were mainly of the second-grade and third-grade, while dry lands were mainly of the first-grade and second-grade. It illustrated the high natural quality of the cultivated land, but the natural quality only reflected land natural characteristics. Therefore, influence coefficient was used to modify natural quality index based on the investigation to households. At the same time, by using the household income as the value of cultivated land, the impact of natural quality and investment structure on the value were further discussed. The results showed that trinomial equation and binomial equation were fitted to reflect the relationship between natural quality and income. In other words, household incomes were not only depended on natural attributes of cultivated land, but also affected by input and management. Because most of studied towns in Dazu County are restricted by one of investment factors, the elasticity coefficient can used to adjust the investment structure. The study shows that the cultivated land quality is not only determined by its natural properties, but also by investment, management, crop patterns and so on. Hence, measures should be taken to regulate the household behaviors in order to improve land quality.