An Evaluation System for Arable Land Consolidation Potential and its Application in China

Arable land consolidation potential (ALCP) evaluation is an ex ante evaluation, the purpose of which is to select areas that are suitable for land consolidation projects and to support the decision-making processes of the LC Bureau. In this paper, ALCP is divided into two types – theoretical and practical. Theoretical ALCP represents the potential that can be fulfilled from a natural standpoint and has five main categories: (1) increase in available arable land area; (2) increase in agricultural productivity; (3) decrease in agricultural production costs; (4) improvement in the ecological environment; and (5) decrease in land property disputes as a result of ALC. Practical ALCP represents the potential that can be achieved. The transformation from theoretical into practical ALCP is affected by factors such as existing technology and farmer support. Moreover, in this paper an evaluation system for both theoretical and practical ALCP is established, with all evaluation indices having values between 0 and 1....