Research on the Scale of Agricultural Land Moderate Management and Countermeasures Based on Farm Household Analysis

Abstract

The scale of agricultural land management was scientifically measured to provide a theoretical reference for improving the efficiency of agricultural land utilization, optimizing the industrial structure, and effectively solving the “three rural problems”. Based on 368 microfarmers’ agricultural land management questionnaire responses, the Cobb–Douglas production function was used to measure the average household size in different zones of Shawan City, Xinjiang, and then to calculate the total scale of moderate management in the region, and to divide the supplementary and reduced zones of arable land. The proposed countermeasures and suggestions for achieving the scale of moderate management from the perspectives of both people and land are presented. The results show the following: (1) the average suitable operating scales of households in the hilly area, the agricultural area in the oasis plain, and the oasis–desert interlace area were 5.15, 9.28, and 7.74 ha, respectively. (2) The moderate total scales of operation in the low hilly area, the middle oasis plain agricultural area, and the lower oasis–desert ecotone were 60,380, 112,510, and 115,500 ha, respectively. (3) Two areas, the low mountainous and hilly areas and the oasis plain farming areas, are supplementary areas of arable land, which should be supplemented by improving the management capacity of farmers, cultivating two new agricultural business entities, increasing land transfers, developing modern agriculture, and reducing the degree of fragmentation of arable land. The oasis–desert staggered area is the area where the scale of arable land is reduced. We should vigorously implement the work of retreating land and reducing water, and guide farmers to engage in secondary and tertiary industries so as to reduce the scale of arable land.