ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some data and interpretations in order to establish a baseline for the quantity of cultivated farmland in China and to identify the trends in China's farmland supply and the regional aspects of farmland change. It discusses the various dynamics of farmland change and where and why these changes are occurring. The chapter reviews China's historic supply of farmland and the changes since the late 1980s using aggregated and disaggregated data from China's Yearbook of Rural Statistics and editions of the China Statistical Yearbook. It examines geographic variations in cropland changes at the provincial level and to identify and explain some of the causes for these changes, both structurally and regionally. China's agricultural system and farm production are remarkable for their large size and scale and the breadth and variety of production. Boosting productivity will become more difficult as production approaches the point of diminishing returns under agricultural technologies.
