Enlightenment of EU New Common Agricultural Policy on Protection and Sustainable Utilization of Cultivated Land in China

Kexin MA, Zisheng YANG

Institute of Land Resources and Sustainable Development, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming 650221, China

Abstract EU common agricultural policy is a guiding policy implemented by European member states for nearly 60 years and continuously reformed according to the international situation. At present, its reform direction is consistent with the requirements of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in China’s "14th five-year" plan, which could provide reference for China. Based on analyzing protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land in China and the reform process of EU common agricultural policy, referring to main measures of the new common agricultural policy with advanced nature and superiority, and combining actual situation of China, three suggestions on promoting the implementation of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization strategy in China are proposed: perfecting legal system of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in China, agricultural subsidies inclining to young farmers to stimulate the new vitality of cultivated land protection, taking green development as goal orientation and scientifically carrying out ecological construction of cultivated land, to provide better system guarantee for maintaining China’s food security.

Key words Farmland protection, EU common agricultural policy, Sustainable utilization, Enlightenment

1 Introduction

As a sustainable productivity, food production attracts the eyes of people all over the world and is related to global food security. Food security is an important guarantee of national security, and the protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land is an important premise to ensure food production and stable increase in production. In the

Suggestions

of

the

CPC

Central

Committee

on

Formulating

the

14

Five

-

year

Plan

for

National

Economic

and

Social

Development

and

the

Long

-

term

Goal

of

2035 deliberated and adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19CPC Central Committee, it clearly required that China should adhere to the strictest farmland protection system, strictly adhere to the red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land, and guarantee stead increase of cultivated land quantity and significant improvement of cultivated land quality. In the

National

Agricultural

Sustainable

Development

Plan

(2015-2030) issued by Department of Development Planning, Ministry of Agriculture, it also clearly took protecting cultivated land resources and promoting sustainable utilization of farmland as one of key tasks, and sufficiently understood enthusiasm of sustainable utilization of cultivated land. It is clear that China’s cultivated land protection has entered a new stage of development with continuous development of modern agriculture. It has become a new consensus to introduce the concept of sustainable utilization into cultivated land protection.

EU common agricultural policy (CAP) is a long-term agricultural policy implemented by European member states and continuously reformed according to the international situation. At present, EU CAP is in the stage of reform and development from the quantitative requirements of food production to the protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land, which is consistent with the requirements for cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization under the background of China’s "14five-year" plan. In this paper, starting from new reform direction of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization of EU CAP, and combining the problems in cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in China, several suggestions are proposed, which could provide reference for protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land in China.

2 Protection and sustainable utilization conditions of cultivated land in China

While China has made great achievements in agriculture, there are also restrictive factors in cultivated land resources, such as high constraints of resources, the reality of environmental pollution, the decline of ecosystem, imperfect system and mechanism and so on. Since vigorously developing the economy, China’s urbanization has developed rapidly. Construction occupation, ecological conversion of farmland, disaster damage and agricultural structure reform have become the main factors for the reduction of cultivated land year by year. A large number of scholars have carried out specific research on how to protect cultivated land. As a kind of important means of protection cultivated land, ecological management of cultivated land was studied by a larger number of scholars from land adaptability, matching degree of crop vertical relationship, coordination of cultivated land ecological function, and rationality of resource transformation mode, which could provide theoretic basis for promoting the quality and sustainable utilization of cultivated land. There are ecological fragility, soil erosion and other problems in mountainous areas of China. In ecologically fragile areas, the mode of land resources development and utilization is environment-friendly, to maintain its ecological-economic-social sustainability. For soil erosion problem in the mountainous area with slope more than 25°, it needs returning farmland to forest (grass), paying attention to the improvement of ground vegetation coverage, and implementing the "slope to ladder" project for cultivated land. For the cultivated land polluted by heavy metals with low soil fertility, it could take the way of cultivated land fallow for treatment, and analyze farmers’ participation in fallow treatment of farmland polluted by heavy metals via planned behavior theory. Moreover, dynamic simulation research is conducted from implementation angle of fallow policy and scale of cultivated land fallow. The ultimate goal is to improve the quality and production capacity of cultivated land, and finally realize the sustainable utilization of cultivated land by perfecting fallow policy of cultivated land. Meanwhile, it analyzes farmers’ cognition of cultivated land protection and economic compensation from the angle of imperfect compensation mechanism for cultivated land protection, and explores factors affecting the allocation of compensation funds of cultivated land protection. Some scholars think that farmers are the driving factor of cultivated land quality, and study from stability of land property rights, choice of cultivated land protection technology, and perceived value. It is obtained that farmers’ enthusiasm for cultivated land protection determines whether they can give full play to the role of cultivated land protection.

Experts and scholars have made multi-angle research on cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization, but the results have not changed China’s basic national conditions of small per capita cultivated land, low overall quality of cultivated land and insufficient reserve land resources suitable for cultivation. The situation of cultivated land protection is still extremely severe. On the

People

’

s

Daily

, August 27, 2021, Office of the Third National Land Survey Leading Group of the State Council, Ministry of Natural Resources, and State Statistical Bureau issued the

Bulletin

on

Main

Data

of

the

Third

National

Land

Survey

and the

Release

of

Main

Data

and

Results

of

the

Third

National

Land

Survey

. Results of the third national land survey collected on December 31, 2019 displayed that the area of national cultivated land was 1.278 619×10ha, which decreased by 7.522 7×10ha than 1.353 846×10ha (cultivated land area of the second national land survey) collected on December 31, 2009. In 1.278 619×10ha of national cultivated land area by the third national land survey, the cultivated land with slope of 15-25° reached 7.726 8×10ha, accounting for 6.04%; steep slope cultivated land with slope >25° reached 4.225 2×10ha, accounting for 3.31%. Therefore, it must not take it lightly on the issue of cultivated land protection in China, adhere to the strictest cultivated land protection system, and keep the red line of cultivated land.

3 Main measures for protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land by EU new CAP

After the Second World War, there were many problems in the world, such as food shortage, the decline of self-sufficiency rate, and the price of agricultural products higher than the world average for a long time. To solve such problems, EU established agricultural support policy in 1963, which was called commonly agricultural policy. Since its establishment, EU CAP has always taken a proactive approach to change according to the changes of international and its own environment. The policy was initially established to solve the damage caused by the two world wars to the agricultural production of European countries, among which the food shortage was the most significant problem. CAP in the period established four principles: single market, price support, agricultural export subsidies and stable financial support. After solving the problem of food shortage, due to the inherent defects of market regulation, the output of agricultural products was surplus, and the finance of each country was difficult to support it. In this respect, CAP carried out single agricultural policy reform and vigorously developed agricultural modernization in the 1970s-1980s. From the 1990s to 2006, rural diversification has attracted extensive attention, and rural development policy was proposed, realizing the transformation from single agricultural policy to comprehensive agricultural development policy. From 2007 to 2013, EU CAP shifted from focusing on grain production to green development. The reform direction from 2014 to 2020 was more green, fair and market-oriented, and main content of reform was market oriented, concerning environmental protection, and giving priority to rural development. Nowadays, CAP has entered new reform stage of 2021 to 2027, and its reform content meets the world’s requirements for sustainable utilization strategy. Main measures for cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization by EU new CAP meet the new requirements of the times.

At present, EU CAP is in a new period of change, and the background of change is the need to urgently and effectively deal with climate change and the loss of biodiversity. In view of such international common problems, it is required that CAP after 2020 must be consistent with the international objectives of the

Convention

on

Biological

Diversity

and the

Paris

Agreement

. The provisional political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on the new common agricultural policy on June 25, 2021 introduced a fairer, greener, more animal friendly and flexible CAP. According to the objectives of the European green agreement, it will be realized from January of 2023. New CAP will also ensure a more equitable distribution of small and medium-sized family farms and young farmers.

3.1 Constructing more equitable distribution system

3.1.1

Cross compliance mechanism. Cross compliance mechanism is an important component of revenue support in the first pillar of CAP. It means that farmers need to abide by a series of EU laws and regulations on environment, public health, animal and plant health, animal welfare and keeping the land in good agricultural farming conditions, so as to obtain income support subsidies. EU requires that any farmers who apply for direct regional payments, agricultural environmental payments and other support measures from EU funds and national budgets must cross comply with the rules. Once it is found that farmers do not comply with the cross compliance rules, the direct payment funds of farmers will be reduced. The support for young farmers is setting a mandatory minimum level, namely 3% of member state budget, to obtain CAP income support for young farmers (below 40 years old).From 2015 to 2020, the farmers who accept CAP payment subsidy funds need following implementation mode of cross control system combining two regulations [the

Statutory

Management

Requirements

(SMR) and the

Good

Agricultural

and

Environmental

Conditions

on

Land

(GAEC)]. Moreover, if the content violated by the CAP beneficiary involves two laws and regulations, the two laws and regulations can be allowed to be punished commonly. The implementation mode of cross control system involves three fields and nine specific objectives: environment, climate change and good agricultural land; public health, animal and plant health; animal welfare system. Among them, there are six items containing GAEC1-6 conducive to the requirements and standards of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization. Moreover, each SMR and GAEC conduct mandatory requirements on farmers in accordance with current European regulations, directives and national legislation, which could provide methods for farmers protecting land and sustainable management of natural resources (Table 1).

Table 1 Cross compliance rules applicable to farmers’ plans and support measures during 2015-2020

3.1.2

Green direct payment or greening. Green direct payment is also called greening, and it belongs to a green oriented special income support in income support in the first pillar of CAP. The purpose of implementing green direct income is to realize "greening" by using 30% of the income support of EU countries, so as to encourage farmers to care for natural resources and protect cultivated land.Green direct payment is also a mandatory practice, which requires farmers to abide by three practices conducive to the environment (cultivated land, biodiversity and grassland,

etc.

) before they can get green direct income. The government will impose administrative penalties on farmers who destroy and pollute cultivated land (the reduction of cultivated land). Actions that farmers must take are divided into below three kinds:

(i) Crop diversity. Crop diversity makes the soil and ecosystem more resilient, and it is required at least two crops to be planted on cultivated land with an area of more than 10 ha and no more than 30 ha; at least three crops shall be planted on the cultivated land with an area of more than 30 ha, and 25% of the cultivated land shall be reserved.

(ii) Maintenance of permanent grassland. Grassland can play a role in carbon sequestration and provide habitat for a variety of organisms, which is conducive to slowing down the progress of global warming and protecting biodiversity. EU countries have stipulated that the area of permanent grassland and cultivated land has 5% of flexible adjustment at the national and regional levels. For areas with high environmental sensitivity, the EU establishes a permanent grassland area and prohibits any unit or individual from farming or changing its use here.

(iii) Ecological focus areas (EFA). EFA indicates the land that could improve biodiversity and protect animal habitat by planting trees and hedge or taking fallow. The EU stipulates that for cultivated land with an area of more than 15 ha, it must ensure that 5% of the land is an "ecological focus area", which is dedicated to maintaining ecologically beneficial elements, indirectly reducing the use of inputs and improving soil protection.

3.1.3

Rural development policy (RDP). RDP is "the second pillar" of CAP, and it enhances the "first pillar" of revenue support and market measures by enhancing social, environmental and economic sustainability in rural areas. Through three long-term goals, CAP could promote sustainable development in rural areas; improve the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry; ensure sustainable management of natural resources and climate action; realize the balanced development of rural economy and region, containing creating and maintaining employment opportunities. Support for rural development will continue to provide various extensive tools conducive to environment and climate, containing agricultural methods supporting agricultural environment and climate and the practice conducive to environmental climate and providing environmental public goods in the field of climate change adaptation. It contains water quality and quantity, air quality, soil, biodiversity, landscape and ecosystem services. Additionally, rural development will also continue to maintain and transform organic agriculture and form a regional network.

3.2 Proposing more environmentally friendly ecological strategy

New CAP will fully integrate the EU’s environmental and climate legislation to make its reform transit to more sustainable agriculture, and increase concerns about climate, environment and animal welfare. New CAP plan will be conducive to realizing the objectives of agriculture, cross compliance mechanism and biodiversity strategy, and update them. In interim political agreement accomplished in new CAP published on June 25, 2021, it was proposed a more environmentally friendly ecological strategy requirement, which was consist with the European Green Deal, and ecological plan was made.

3.2.1

Consistent with the European Green Deal. In December of 2019, EC issued the European Green Deal 2019. It provided the opportunities to explain sustainability practices and priorities, to accelerate the development of EU changing from traditional mode to sustainable utilization mode, and realize the goal that Europe will become the world’s first "carbon neutral" region by 2050. New CAP combines all elements critical to achieving sustainable agricultural practices, and these approaches can achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal. It contains a mixture of voluntary and mandatory measures conducive to the environment and climate, to better link support for agricultural incomes and rural areas to the adoption of sustainable models and practices, as well as a range of actions to promote knowledge, innovation and digital technologies, to support the target.

The European Parliament revised the European Green Deal in October 2020 to align European agriculture with the green agreement policy chain. The European Commission summarizes its priorities for future CAP from 2021 to 2027 and formulates nine specific strategic objectives, covering the three dimensions of sustainability: economy, society and environment, as well as a cross cutting goal on knowledge and innovation. The specific objectives are consistent with the focus of the European Green Deal, especially in the following aspects: increasing contribution of EU agriculture to climate change mitigation and adaptation; improving agriculture to use for the management of natural resources such as water, soil and air; enhancing the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural and forest systems; enhancing social concern for food and health and the effective sustainability of the food system; changing animal welfare, pesticide use and antibiotic resistance; ensuring fair economic returns and improving the position of farmers in the food supply chain. The European Commission has formulated a new CAP consistent with the European Green Deal, and it marks the real beginning of the transformation of European agricultural practice. It will provide correct tools to support transition of farmers in Europe to sustainable farmland protection system.

3.2.2

Developing ecological plan. After 2020, CAP increased a new element: ecological plan, which adds new vitality to the environment and climate in the first pillar. EU member states must develop multi-year national or regional programmes in accordance with the requirements of the second pillar to address the priorities of that pillar. The scheme takes the form of farmers’ voluntary, that is, farmers do not need to participate in the program of the second pillar while obtaining the income support funds of the first pillar. Additionally, it also meets the payment requirement per hectare of the agricultural environment-climate commitment (AEC) to transform or maintain the commitments of organic agriculture and animal welfare that exceed mandatory standards. Member states must allocate at least 25% of their income support budget to ecological plans, namely 48 billion euros of the total amount of direct payment budget. At least 35% of the rural development fund will be used for agricultural environmental commitments to promote environmental, climate and animal welfare practices.New CAP sufficiently uses the potential of "ecological plan", and sets a minimum budget. So, the regulations of the strategic plan stipulate the minimum financial share allocated by each country. The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (Agriculture) recommends allocating at least 70% of the funds to direct income support and improving the mandatory financial distribution plan. In order to encourage the application of these plans to arable land with a potentially higher ecological footprint, different studies suggest excluding "ecological plans" from the mandatory reduction of direct payments, so as to use their potential to strengthen the environmental results of the first pillar. To ensure the steady progress of results, the European Commission will propose a new approach that goes beyond the original and has differentiation until 2025, making a contribution to CAP target and the goals of the

Paris

Agreement

and the

Convention

on

Biological

Diversity.

3.3 Making more flexible CAP

New CAP will introduce a kind of new working method, that is, each member state will draft a national CAP strategic plan describing how to achieve the objectives of the green agreement on farms and cultivated land and the objectives of the CAP. Additionally, new CAP focuses on performance updates, and simpler rules have been developed at the EU level. It is required that member states will submit an annual performance report to the committee from 2024 and participate in the annual review meeting. The committee will focus on reviewing the implementation of the CAP strategic plan from 2025 to 2027. If necessary, member states will take specific actions in accordance with the requirements of the committee.

New CAP maintains the overall trend of market oriented. The EU operates it under the guidance of agricultural market, and uses trade to create opportunities outside the EU. The new agricultural reserves will also be used for market measures during the crisis, with an annual budget of at least 450 million euros to ensure the orderly operation of the agricultural market. Meanwhile, it also enhances farmers’ position in food supply chain and encourages migrant workers to return from cities to rural areas for agricultural production by enlarging the possibility of peasants joining the army.

4 Enlightenment of EU new CAP on protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land in China

4.1 Perfecting legal system of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in China

EU CAP has a complete legal system for protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land, and adopts the combination of voluntary law and mandatory law for cultivated land protection. Compared with EU CAP, the legislative process of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in China is relatively slow. China is also in the exploratory stage of soil protection, and the

Law

of

the

People

’

s

Republic

of

China

on

the

Prevention

and

Control

of

Soil

Pollution

drafted by Ministry of Environment was effective from January 1, 2019. The promulgation of this law has filled the legislative gap in soil pollution and prevention, but there are some problems, such as inadequate legal publicity and popular science, the public’s lack of understanding of specific laws and regulations, unclear implementation of legal responsibilities, and imperfect supporting laws and regulations. Therefore, the decentralized characteristics of relevant laws should be gradually turned into systematic development, such as the

Law

of

the

People

’

s

Republic

of

China

on

Land

Administration

, the

Regulations

for

the

Implementation

of

the

Land

Administration

Law

of

the

People

’

s

Republic

of

China

, the

Regulations

on

the

Protection

of

Basic

Farmland

, and the

Law

of

the

People

’

s

Republic

of

China

on

the

Prevention

and

Control

of

Solid

Waste

Pollution

. In addition, China’s laws on land are generally the same in the laws and regulations issued by different departments in the concept and the division of basic farmland, but there are also differences, resulting in unclear definition. For such problems, first, China should work with the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecological Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas and other relevant departments of the People’s Republic of China to jointly design a unified legal system for cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization, and integrate scattered laws and regulations, such as soil pollution, land reclamation, water and soil conservation, agricultural drug safety, and control of pollutants in agricultural sludge with the laws and regulations related to cultivated land protection, to construct a systematic law. Second, it should improve supporting laws and regulations, strengthen the connection between laws and regulations, and enhance the connection between various departments. Third, it should clear cultivation method of cultivated land, pesticide category, dosage and recovery, implement a series of system construction such as supervision and regulation, irrigation water quality standards and soil quality standards for agricultural land producers, making law have unity and authority, clearing scope, object and content of managers’ power exercise, promoting the construction of the legal system for the protection and sustainable use of cultivated land in China, and providing sound legal guarantee for the protection of cultivated land.

4.2 Agricultural subsidies inclining to young farmers, to stimulate the new vitality of cultivated land protection

EU CAP agricultural subsidy policy is constantly adjusted with the transformation of agricultural demand. Its subsidy policy has the characteristics of wide range, many types and great strength, and the combination of mandatory and voluntary subsidy is also the characteristic of the policy. With the emergence of the global phenomenon of population aging, the EU has found a main force of young people who can be competent in agricultural production and cultivated land protection activities. In order to guide young farmers with sufficient skills to enter agricultural production, EU new CAP clearly mentions that young farmers can obtain subsidies of the first pillar through active agricultural production and participate in the second pillar projects to obtain additional subsidies. China’s subsidies for cultivated land protection are in the development stage. In declared items in the

Notice

on

Overall

Planning

and

Application

of

Declaration

Work

of

Agricultural

Industry

Integration

Development

Projects

in

2021 by General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas and General Office of the Ministry of Finance on March 5, 2021, new subsidy projects conducive to cultivated land protection were proposed, such as the subsidy project for cultivated land fertility protection, the project of replacing chemical fertilizer with organic fertilizer, and green, high-quality and efficient actions for key crops, and a new method of unifying voluntariness and compulsion has been achieved. However, for the current situation of China’s aging population, young farmers are not included in the scope of subsidies, resulting in the lack of main force and slow process of cultivated land protection. Therefore, China should innovate new ways of subsidies, increase the types of subsidies, improve the fund distribution procedures of existing subsidies, include young farmers in agricultural subsidies, develop subsidy projects for young farmers and establish development funds, guide young farmers to develop in the direction of agricultural production, and cultivate their knowledge of cultivated land protection and green farming methods, and cultivate them into the main force of agricultural production in the new era, to stimulate the new vitality of cultivated land protection.

4.3 Taking green development as the goal orientation and scientifically carrying out ecological construction of cultivated land

The latest policy initiatives for sustainable use in EU new CAP are requiring consistent with European Green Deal, making ecological plan, and providing opportunities to explain sustainability practices and priorities for EU. In the "14five-year" plan, China also proposes the idea of "promoting green development, and harmonious development between man and nature". However, China’s long-term dependence on chemicals such as pesticides, chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides has led to the decline of cultivated land fertility, excessive heavy metals in soil and water pollution, which seriously threatens food security and sustainable utilization of cultivated land. Therefore, China should refer to the measure of new CAP, take green development in the "14five-year" plan as the target, and scientifically carry out ecological construction of cultivated land. First, it should coordinate various land remediation projects from the perspective of ecosystem integrity, make all land consolidation ecological, carry out comprehensive land improvement and build basic farmland protection areas on the basis of not destroying the original ecological pattern, and use the ecological utility of cultivated land to maintain the good self-regulation ability of cultivated land. Second, it should strictly restrict use of chemicals in agricultural production, select green pesticides extracted from organisms for cultivated land planting, and reduce the possibility of chemical residues corroding cultivated land. Biological insecticide with low toxicity and small residue should be selected. Slight residue is helpful to awaken the self-healing ability of cultivated land system and improve the quality and stability of cultivated land ecosystem. Third, it should reduce human intervention on organisms and destruction of biological landscape in cultivated land, maintain the ecological balance of cultivated land, improve microbial activity and biodiversity in cultivated soil, and increase nutrients in soil on the basis of ensuring food safety, making it have the ability to resist external threats and self repair, give full play to the role of cultivated land ecology, and realize the sustainable protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land resources.

5 Conclusions and discussion

5.1 Basic conclusions

General situation of protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land in China is combed briefly. On the basis of analyzing advanced experience of EU new CAP, enlightenment of protection and sustainable utilization of cultivated land in China is put forward tentatively.

(i) As a guiding policy which has been uniformly implemented by EU member states for nearly 60 years, EU CAP continuously reforms and develops according to international situation, making that the legal system of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization is complete. Comparing the scattered characteristics of laws and regulations related to cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in China, it is of great significance to build a systematic law to integrate dispersed into a whole, improve the supporting laws and regulations, unify each standard of farming.

(ii) Cultivated land protection in EU new CAP adopts a new way of characteristic agricultural subsidies combining voluntary and mandatory, and turns the subsidies to young farmers to stimulate the new vitality of cultivated land protection. Agricultural subsidies for young farmers are not the focus of China’s subsidy policy. Combining current situation of population aging, China should innovate new ways of subsidies, classify young farmers as the object of agricultural subsidies, and cultivate them into the main force of agricultural production in the new era.

(iii) The requirements for cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in EU new CAP are consistent with the European Green Deal, which is consistent with the idea of "promoting green development, and harmonious development between man and nature" in the "14five-year" plan of China. It is conducive to improving the ability of cultivated land to resist external threats and self repair, and maintaining the ecological balance of cultivated land.

5.2 Discussion

At present, there are some phenomena in China’s cultivated land, such as construction occupation, ecological conversion, disaster damage and ecosystem degradation, which have varying degrees of adverse effects on the quantity, quality and ecological environment of cultivated land. How to protect cultivated land is an urgent problem. In this paper, based on concrete measures of EU new CAP, suggestions on cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization are put forward. It is of great significance to improve the legal system of cultivated land protection and sustainable utilization in China, change the object of agricultural subsidies and carry out cultivated land ecological construction. However, due to the common construction of cultivated land protection from multiple angles, dimensions and levels, there are still some limitations and deficiencies. Combining China’s actual condition, how to give full play to the economic, social and ecological effects and further carry out cultivated land protection needs further exploration.