Analysis of the moderating effect on cultivated land and poverty incidence based on geographical weighted regression

Abstract

Abstract Despite economic progress and reducing poverty, poverty remains one of the world’s major problems. Cropland is fundamental for agricultural production and social development in rural areas. Previous research has theoretically discussed the relationship between cultivated land and poverty incidence from the perspective of spatial poverty. The linkage between arable land use and poverty incidence is ambiguous, and other regional conditions’ moderation effect has seldom been investigated. Seven geographical indicators and four interaction terms were used to explore the moderating effect of other factors between cultivated land and poverty incidence in Linyi based on geographical weighted regression. The results demonstrate-d that environmental factors moderated the relationship between cultivated land resources and the incidence of poverty. Specifically, we found spatial nonstationarity of moderation effect associated with the elevation difference. The moderation effect of road and accessibility with cultivated land presented different directions and strengths of the association in two datasets grouped by the median of elevation. Based on these findings, we expect this paper to provide valuable insights into analyzing the poverty of complexity of interaction with the environment.