Abstract:

In recent 20 years,cultivated land area is decreasing quickly along with fast economic development in Hubei Province,which will cause potential effect to food security strategy of China.Gross domestic product,total investment of fixed assets,urbanization level and cultivated land area are selected as the four major factors for analysis in this paper.The correlations of cultivated land area decrease and economic development in Hubei Province from 1990 to 2007 were discussed in details as the major subject by contrast analysis and least squares approach.The study shows a negative correlation between economic growth and the available cultivated land,and cultivated land area decrease was impacted mostly by the economic development in recent 20 years in Hubei Province.Change of 9298% in cultivated land resource occupied can be illustrated because of the growth of gross domestic product,total investment of fixed assets and urbanization level.But along with economic growth and level improvement of intensive land use,unit land cost of economic growth will show a downward trend.In addition,cultivated land area decrease was higher in developed area and plain area than in underdeveloped area and upland area.So in the future,it should be emphasized more to use land intensively by scientific planning and protect high quality cultivated land by economic measure and benefit compensation.The analytical results and conclusions of this paper will not only provide scientific basis for the rational use and effective protection of cultivated land in Hubei Province,but also provide an important reference for further study on cultivated land resources changed in other regions of China during economic development.

Key words: GDP/fixed assets investment/urbanization/cultivated land resource