Abstract: As the core area of China's economic development and an important agricultural production base, the Yangtze River Economic Belt is confronted with great risks and challenges in the process of rapid urbanization and industrialization, with large load and significant pressure of cultivated land resources. Based on the cultivated land pressure index model modified by the standard cultivated land coefficient, this paper analyzes the cultivated land resources situation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 1987 to 2017, reflects the changing trend of the cultivated land pressure with multiple spatial and temporal scales, and calculates the future changing trend of the cultivated land pressure by using the prediction model.The results show that :(1) The time series of cultivated land pressure in the Yangtze River Economic Belt presents an inverted "V" type distribution, and decreases slowly after reaching the peak pressure in 2003; The spatial pattern presents the basic situation of "overall stability and local turbulence", and the pressure center of gravity moves to the east. (2) The regional cultivated land pressure is obviously heterogeneous. The upper reaches of the Yangtze River are mainly affected by poor farming conditions and frequent natural disasters, while the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are mainly affected by rapid urbanization. The distribution pattern shows the situation of "rapid rise in the lower reaches, steady decline in the middle reaches and fluctuation in the upper reaches". (3) During the 14th five-year Plan period, the cultivated land pressure in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has not been alleviated, and has a momentum of increasing year by year, which poses a certain challenge to the great protection strategy and needs to be taken seriously by relevant decision-making departments.