Abstract: From the virtual farmland perspective and taking the counties in Henan Province, this paper constructed an analysis framework of inter-county farmland ecological compensation to analyze the compensation standards for inter-county farmland ecological compensation. Results show that: 1) the net outflow of the virtual farmland in Henan Province is mainly distributed in the areas with low economic development level and superior agricultural production conditions, and the net inflow is mainly distributed in the areas with high economic development level; 2) according to the flow pattern of virtual farmland, the payment/compensation area of farmland ecological compensation is divided. The compensation area of farmland ecological compensation mainly concentrates in the eastern and southern plains of Henan Province, and the payment area mainly concentrates in the central region of Henan Province, the western hilly and mountainous areas and the main urban areas of prefecture-level cities; and 3) the payment and receiving amount varies greatly among the counties: the payment amount of the eight districts under the jurisdiction of Zhengzhou, six districts under the jurisdiction of Luoyang and four districts under the jurisdiction of Pingdingshan are higher with the total payment share over 50%, and the compensation receiving shares of Yongcheng, Xi, Tanghe, Taikang, Hua, Dancheng, Zhengyang, Shangshui, Xiping and Gushi counties are higher, with the total amount of compensation receiving share over 60%.