The Scale of Constructing Mountainous Cities in Yunnan Province based on"Benchmark"Farmlands

Mingjun XU, Zisheng YANG

Institute of Land&Resources and Sustainable Development, Kunming 650221, China

For a long term, China is challenged by loss of highly-qualified farmlands and crop safety under influence of economic develop ment and urbanization[1-3]. Extensively distributed,however, mountainous regions are limited in farmlands due to special landforms.Yunnan is a tropical mountainous province with broad mountainous regions and limited fertile lands[4]. Farmlands, especially highlyqualified farmlands, concentrate in basin areas, and the conflict of farmland protection becomes increasingly prominent with urbanization, industrialization and infrastructure construction[5]. Based on the conflicts between resource demand and supply,and development and protection, Yunnan Provincial Committee and government made an important decision to change the mindset on 6% flatlands in urban construction and turn to development of low-slope hilly land resources.Nevertheless, Yunnan is a mountainous province, where population and resources are unevenly distributed. Regional differences, therefore, should be taken into consideration. This article believed that such differences can be observed from the scale of constructing mountainous cities and by measured coefficients of the "Benchmark" farmlands to explore the control of scale of constructing mountainous cities under the strategy of farmland protection.

Consideration of Crop Safety on Constructing Mountainous Cities from the Perspective of Farmland Protection

The strategy and orientation of crop safety in Yunnan Province should be underscored in promoting sustainable,healthy and stable devel-opment of towns in Yunnan, as well as the effects of land use on crop safety[6]. Therefore, it is necessary to guarantee crop safety in advancing urban development, constructing mountainous cities and coordinating the issues of “food” and “construction”.Farmlands are fundamental production resources of agriculture.Hence, farmland protection concerns national crop safety and farmer’s livelihoods. However, economic development makes it inevitable to occupy lands, especially for farmlands,and it is common that the conflict exists between economic evolvement and crop production. What’s worse,the conflict between rigid constraint in demand from construction lands and farmland protection is increasingly serious[7]. Therefore,Yunnan Province gives the top priority to protecting farmlands and crop safety in economic evolvement,getting rid of farmland abuse or the phenomenon of occupying farmlands for construction processing,and proposes the strategy of rational development of mountainous resources and constructing mountainous cities.

The Control of Constructing Mountainous Cities under the Principle of Crop Safety

The final target of the principle of constructing mountainous cities in Yunnan is to protect farmlands, guarantee regional crop safety, and improve allocation efficiency of land resources in order to achieve sustainable development of regional economy.Yunnan is a mountainous province, where population and resources are unevenly distributed. Regional differences, therefore, should be taken into consideration in advancing constructing mountainous cities. It is notable that the differences of constructing mountainous cities reflect the differences of urban economy and agricultural position and the importance of farmland protection. It is true that economic and social indices of urbanization matter, however, highlights should be given to the significant effects of social, cultural and traditional custom, locally or nationally. Therefore, it is not recommended to connect urbanization rate directly with economic growth rate[8]. Besides, the goal of constructing mountainous cities is to protect farmland resources,and the scale of constructing mountainous cities should be measured and quantified according to crop safety strategy of farmlands. In the research, crop safety strategy can be measured by the "Benchmark"farmlands.

The Concepts and Connotation of the "Benchmark"Farmlands and the Coefficient

"Benchmark" farmland refers to the cultivated land which is determined in accordance with a specific standard.In other words, the value of basic farmlands can be concluded from multiplying practical area of farmlands in a region by practical production,followed by division by standard production[9].It is a measurement way considering from the number, quality and yielding of farmlands. Therefore, it is an overall assessment of farmland quantity,as well as a kind of protection on crop safety from the perspective of farmland productivity. The coefficient of "Benchmark" farmlands refers to the quantity of "Benchmark" farmlandto-the essence of farmland,namely referring to the proportion of farmlands achieving standard production. The higher the coefficient,the higher quality of regional farmlands. The research guided the implementation of constructing mountainous cities with the reference of "Benchmark" farmland coefficients, and the avoiding occupation of construction lands is of significance for crop safety strategy. The coefficient of "Benchmark" farmlands concerning crop safety is a reflection of the degree of regional farmlands meeting the demands from population,society and economy provided crop safety guaranteed. Hence, the highest the coefficient, the higher the significance of regional crop safety, and we should attach great importance to this factor in advancing constructing mountainous cities, than protect regional farmlands, and extend the construction scale.

The Coefficient of the"Benchmark" Farmlands and Calculation of Construction Land Scale

The calculation method of basic farmland coefficient

According to the concept of the"Benchmark" farmland, it can be expressed as follows:

Fb =(Ppratical ×Sc)/Pstandard,where Fb refers to the quantity of the"Benchmark" farmlands in a region(hm2); P practical refers to practical production (kg/hm2);Pstandard refers to standard production (kg/hm2); Sc refers to practical quantity of farmlands(hm2). Besides, crop output and farmland area can be obtained by statistics.The key is to determine standard production provided crop safety guaranteed, and the standard production is the quantity of demanded crop-to-the practical sowing area of farmlands ratio. It is crucial to determine the quantity of demanded crop obtained by the predicted population multiplying by the quantity of demanded crops per capita.

Specifically, regional population can be obtained by statistics, and it is key to determine annual demand of crop per capita which is decided by food demand of human beings and tends to be volatile upon food consumption structure[10]. Crop demands consist of grain ration, grain reserve, grains stored for catering business, forage grain, seed and industry grain[11]. In accordance with practical field survey and well-off society standard, 400 kg/y was used as rational demand quantity of crop per capita in the research.

The calculation method of scale of constructing mountainous cities

Population, economy development, society, eco-environment and location are five factors affecting land use scale in cities,of which population,economy, society and environment have been taken into consideration in regional land use planning. Therefore,the prediction on controlling of the scale of constructing mountainous cities is a relative value on basis of absolute amount of land use planning.Hence, it is necessary to compute the newly increased land scale for control-ling on constructing mountainous cities. In accordance with per capita construction land indices at urban planning and present construction area per capita of General Planning of Land Use in Yunnan Province during 2006-2020, the scale of construction lands per capita in 2020 can be concluded in different prefecture-level cities in Yunnan, followed by computing general scale of construction lands by predicting urban population. Furthermore,the newly increased scale of construction lands can be obtained by total scale subtracting present land use scale, and the scale of constructed mountainous cities can be concluded by the newly increased land scale multiplying by the coefficient of the"Benchmark"farmlands,as follows:

where Sk is the controlled scale of constructed mountainous cities and K is the coefficient of the "Benchmark"farmlands.

The source of data

Practical output of farmlands,predicted populations in prefecturelevel cities and sowing areas of crops come from Yunan Statistical Yearbook in 2012; practical farmland area and present scale of cities in prefecturelevel cities come from the 2ndNational Land Survey; total scale of construction lands come from Land Use Planning come from The General Land Use Plan of Yunnan Province during 2006-2020.

The Coefficient of the"Benchmark" Farmlands and Results and Analysis of Constructing Mountainous Cities

Analysis of data concerning the"Benchmark"farmlands

As shown in Fig.1, crop demands tended to be volatile upon population.For example, crop demands of Kunming was 2.732 6 million tons,which is 16 times as high as Diqing.In general,the crop demands of Kunming,Qujing,Zhaotong and Honghe keep higher,but of Lijiang, Xishuangbanna, Dehong,Nujiang and Diqing lower.

Farmland is not evenly distributed in Yunnan, for example, farmland resources are abundant in the east,middle and south, concentrating in Qujing, Zhaotong, Pu’er, Honghe and Wenshan. Due to differed sowing areas of crops, crop yields tend to be volatile accordingly. Therefore, the values of the "Benchmark" farmlands vary, especially in Qujing, Zhaotong,Pu’er,Honghe and Wenshan.

Finally,the coefficient of the"Benchmark" farmlands can be determined as per practical farmland areas. For example, the coefficients of Dehong,Baoshan, Qujing, Dali and Chuxiong maintained higher. The research data indicated that the strategic positions of farmlands in Dehong and Baoshan are the highest,as well as contribution rate of agriculture in economy development,because of geographical advantages, followed by Qujing, Dali and Chuxiong,with the"Benchmark"farmland coefficients over 80%, which are key protected farmland regions. Additionally, the coefficients of the "Benchmark" farmlands in Lijiang, Nujiang,Lincang, Xishuangbanna, Zhaotong,and Honghe all kept higher than 70%,which are concentrated farmland protection regions;the coefficients of Yuxi and Kunming were lower than 50%,indicating that farmland protection work is not so well implemented.

Analysis on the scale of constructed mountainous cities

According to measurements and analysis above, the scale of constructed mountainous cities was the largest in Qujing of 8 511.75-13 160.95 hm2,followed by Honghe of 8 652.49-10 895.3 hm2, Wenshan, Dali, Chuxiong, Kunming, Zhaotong and Pu’er with scales over 5 000 hm2; the scales of Lincang, Dehong, Xishuangbanna,Baoshan and Yuxi exceeded 2 500 hm2,and of Lijiang,Nujiang and Diqing were all below 2 000 hm2. Therefore,the constructed mountainous cities in the research can be classified into five grades, as follows: the scales over 8 000 hm2including Qujing and Honghe are grade Ⅰ; the scales of 6 000-8 000 hm2including Wenshan,Dali and Kunming are grade Ⅱ; the scales of 4 000-6 000 hm2including Chuxiong and Pu’er are grade Ⅲ; the scales of 2 000-4 000 hm2including Zhaotong, Baoshan, Yuxi, Dehong and Lincang are grade Ⅳ; the scales below 2 000 hm2including Lijiang,Nujiang and Diqing are grade Ⅴ.

According to statistics, the con-structed mountainous cities-to-flatland areas ratio reached 1.54 in Yunnan in 2013, suggesting the constructed mountainous cities reached 60.63%construction lands. According to new urbanization demands, the ratio would reach 1.63 in 2020, incorporating that 62.98% construction lands would be occupied by constructing mountainous cities. However, the coefficient of the"Benchmark" farmlands should be 79.21% in 2020 in Yunnan according to prediction method of the research,namely, 79.21% construction lands would be occupied by constructing mountainous cities. Therefore, generally speaking, the scale of newly increased mountainous cities should be in the range of 60%-80% in Yunnan Province in 2020.

Conclusion

Specifically,the coefficients of the"Benchmark" farmlands even exceeded 100% in the south of southwestern Yunnan, over 80% in most areas of middle Yunnan, the north of Yunnan,the south of southwestern Yunnan,the east of southeastern Yunnan, and the north of northeastern Yunnan,but kept below 50% in Kunming and Yuxi. In general,southwestern Yunnan is a key region undergoing construction of mountainous cities,followed by middle and northwestern Yunnan, which coincides with the distribution of major producing regions of agricultural product in Yunnan. Hence, the research conducted control work on construction of mountainous regions on basis of regional crop safety, which protects the strategic position of crops in major producing regions and guarantees urban development.

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