A case study of Lulong County of Hebei Province

In order to identify and zone the arable land with quality increase potentials scientifically, and to enhance the key areas to calculate the upgrade potential of the quality of arable land, based on the results of Lulong farmland classification and gradation results in 2012, this paper analyzed how we can limit the impacts from the restricting factors to the quality of arable land through appropriate regulation, built the quality evaluation system of controlling the restricting factors to the arable land management and quality improvement, and established a comprehensive model including both the arable land quality potential index and computable evaluation index to calculate the growth potential for arable land quality improvement quantitatively. Results showed that: according to the potential arable land index, we divided key areas for land quality improvement into three groups: 1) dominant regions with irrigation guarantee rate. The treatment area is 37 658.85 hm2, accounting for 93.67% of the total cultivated area, and the quality of arable land in the region was improved with 0.64 utilization. 2) dominant regions with organic matter content. The treatment area is 403.62 hm2, accounting for 1.00% of the total arable land, and the quality of cultivated land in the region was improved with 0.83 utilization. And 3) dominant regions with farmland shelter belts. The treatment area is 2 139.53 hm2, accounting for 5.32% of the total cultivated area, and the quality of cultivated land in the region was improved with 0.60 utilization. Through the regulation project, we found that the quality of farmland in Lulong was upgraded by 0.69 utilization in average, the townships were upgraded from 0.47 to 0.86 utilization in average, showing that northern parts upgrade potential was less than the southern parts. Research results from this research can provide technical support for the renovation plan of hill and mountainous areas, defined area of farmland upgrade potential, and the key areas of farmland quality upgrade.