Cultivated land can be one of the most important natural resources for national food security in recent years. The idle or barren cultivated land has normally occurred as an economic resource in rapidly urbanizing areas in China. It is of great significance to reveal the spatial pattern characteristics and causal mechanisms of cultivated land abandonment. The new pattern of development can be evolved under the process of urbanization and industrialization. Generally, the village is assumed as the smallest spatial unit in social management in China, when integrating the government agencies, economic markets, village collectives, individuals, and cultivated land. The multi-dimensional complex interaction has also posed a great challenge to the abandonment degree of cultivated land in villages. However, only a little attentions was paid to the abandonment of cultivated land so far. Therefore, it is urgent to grasp the spatial pattern characteristics and causal mechanisms of abandoned cultivated land in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking Liyang County, Jiangsu Province of China as the research area, this study aims to construct a theoretical framework for the spatial pattern characteristics of abandoned cultivated land. The causal mechanisms were then clarified to reduce the cultivated land abandonment in rapid urbanization areas. The comprehensive abandoned rate of cultivated land was set as the abandoned cultivated land area to the total area. The spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to determine the aggregation effect of abandoned farmland. The kernel density analysis was then used to analyze the spatial characteristics of the agglomeration. Multiple linear regression was utilized to quantitatively reveal the causal mechanisms between abandonment degree and independent variables. The results showed that: 1) The abandoned area of cultivated land was 1 344.48 hm2, including 762.77 and 581.71 hm2 of irrigated and non-irrigated farmland, respectively. The comprehensive abandonment rate was 3.03% in 2019, where each village ranged from 0.01%-54.26%. The widespread abandonment of cultivated land was observed in rapidly urbanizing areas. 2) There was a significant positive spatial correlation with the abandonment of cultivated land. The global Moran index was 0.253. The high-density abandoned area of cultivated land was concentrated mainly in the areas with the high development level industry of commerce and tourism, and a high proportion of non-irrigated land. Cultivated land abandonment also presented a certain agglomeration and driving effect in space. 3) The abandonment degree of cultivated land depended on the resource conditions, economic level, social development, and policy regulation. Specifically, the abandonment of cultivated land was attributed to the loss of labor productivity and the high level of rural non-agricultural economy. By contrast, the cultivated land abandonment was effectively restrained via the high-quality resource of cultivated land, and the favorable policy of land transfer, and prime farmland. Two management strategies were also formulated: one is continue to promote the land improvement projects for the development mode of "tourism+ agriculture", in order to attract the more agricultural capital and enterprises to the village. Another is to actively promote the transfer of cultivated land in the rural areas, particularly with the high level of non-agricultural economic development and serious labor loss. As such, the prime farmland policy can be expected to implement with less abandonment of cultivated land. The finding can provide theoretical support and case reference for small-scale farmland protection and abandoned land management in rapid urbanization areas. © 2022 Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. All rights reserved.
