Food security, fundamental to national security, is challenged by the non-grain conversion of cultivated land. Based on the social and economic statistical data in China, this paper explores the spatiotemporal patterns and driving factors of non-grain cultivated land nationwide and in China’s three main functional grain areas during 2000–2020 with the help of the GIS Spatial Analysis and Spatial Metrology Model. The results show, first, that non-grain conversion initially increased but later decreased, with the non-grain level increasing from 30.61% in 2000 to 34.78% in 2003 and then decreasing to 30.28% in 2020; vegetables, fruits, and medicinal herbs were the main non-grain crops in most areas. Second, the non-grain levels showed an obvious spatial agglomeration state; the regions with low non-grain levels were located in the main grain-producing areas, and although the non-grain conversion levels in the main grain-producing areas decreased, the non-grain levels in these areas were clearly lower in the north than in the south. Moreover, the non-grain conversion levels in the main grain-sales areas and the grain production and sales balance areas increased. Third, rural population size, per capita GDP, the proportion of primary industry, and the land transfer rate are important drivers of the non-grain conversion of cultivated land nationally, but there are also significant spatial differences in the influence of these driving factors in different functional grain areas. This paper provides a new research perspective for analyzing the influencing mechanisms of cultivated non-grain land from the three functional grain areas. At the same time, it reveals the roots of the government’s predicament in the governance of non-grain cultivated land. It provides a reference for the government to formulate new policies for managing non-grain cultivated land.

With the rapid progress of urbanization, the loss of cultivated land has attracted great attention worldwide, and economic compensation is one of the incentives commonly used by the governments to enhance farmers’ enthusiasm in protecting cultivated land. In recent years, although various economic compensation modes have been implemented by the Chinese government, such modes are still experimental and exploratory. Thus, designing and implementing a national economic compensation mode is urgent to effectively protect the quantity and quality of cultivated land. This study focuses on the mode of cultivated land protection fund (CLPF) in Chengdu, which is the earliest mode of the implementation of economic compensation in China in 2008. First, we analyzed the farmers’ satisfaction with the CLPF through a face-to-face interview with 296 farmers in Chengdu. Then, we used the path analysis method to identify the influencing factors of farmers’ satisfaction from the characteristics of farmers and the policy. Results show that the CLPF was generally supported by farmers. Nevertheless, room for improvement still exists. Particularly, farmers’ satisfaction was low in the design of the government’s supervision management of the CLPF. Farmers’ satisfaction with compensation standard, funding use requirement, and the government’s supervision management were remarkably affected by factors, including farmers’ educational level, cultivated land area, total annual agricultural income, farmers’ knowledge of the CLPF, farmers’ recognition of the value of the CLPF, and farmers’ perception of the changes in household economics. Particularly, the direct influence of farmers’ perception of the changes in household economics was the most important. Finally, we proposed the recommendations for constructing a national economic compensation mode for cultivated land protection. Our results have certain guiding significance for promoting the sustainable development of cultivated land protection policies by means of economic incentives in China and other countries.

Under the background of global urbanization, the continuous expansion and extensive utilization of urban and rural construction land has caused a large amount of arable land to be occupied, which seriously threatens national food security. This paper describes the spatio-temporal patterns of urban and rural construction land expansion and its occupation of arable land by using the urban and rural construction land expansion intensity, the urban and rural construction land expansion intensity difference index, and geo-detector model. It also explores the mechanisms through which the arable land was occupied. Results showed that construction land in both urban and rural areas expanded over the period 2009–2018 despite a large number of rural and urban migrants, and the major contributor to the rapid urbanization in China. This dual expansion could mainly be attributed to the tendency of these migrants to keep or even enlarge their rural construction land, which also resulted in a severer arable land loss than that caused by the expansion of urban construction land. Second, the rate of arable land occupied by urban and rural construction land in Henan province has been gradually slowing down, whereas the expansion of rural construction land is most dependent on arable land occupation. Third, according to the geo-detector model, the relationship between urbanization level and arable land occupied by urban and rural construction was the strongest, followed by the growth rate of fixed asset investment and the proportion of secondary and tertiary industries in GDP.

Today, constructing well-facilitated capital farmland on a large scale is one of the key strategic initiatives for enhancing the national capacity for food security. In order to strengthen the scientific and rational distribution of well-facilitated capital farmland, this article, starting with the discussion of ecosystem integrity of regional well-facilitated capital farmland on the basis of ecological niche theory, proposes the concept of ecological niche for well-facilitated capital farmland, and constructs “ecostate” and “ecorole” evaluation models (Ni model) of ecological niche for well-facilitated capital farmland. This is verified by studying the case of the city of Xinzheng, Henan Province, China. As the research result shows, first the condition of farmland in Xinzheng is generally good, and the farmland in the whole city is suitable for the construction of well-facilitated capital farmland covering 34,224.48 km2, 63.18% of the total area, which is mainly distributed in the southern and northwestern parts of the city. Second, the evaluation results are generally in consistency with the actual situation, which indicates that the Ni model is scientific and realistic in the evaluation of suitability for constructing well-facilitated capital farmland. Meanwhile, the Ni values are helpful for indicating the suitability for regional well-facilitated capital farmland. Third, using the most suitable ecological niche to explain standards of construction for well-facilitated capital farmland, and matching n dimension resources ecological niche along with most suitable ecological niche to evaluate well-facilitated capital farmland will convey clear ecological significance and be quite helpful to develop plans and measures for constructing well-facilitated capital farmland based on the size and changes of niche-fitness values.