Research on Farmland Protection and Economic Compensation in Major Grain Producing Areas: A Case Study of Anhui Province

Abstract

As one of the 13 major grain-producing areas in China, Anhui Province undertakes the dual tasks of ensuring national food security and promoting regional economic development. At present, under the background of rapid urbanization and increasing pressure on farmland protection, establishing a scientific and effective economic compensation mechanism for farmland protection has become a key path to coordinate food security, ecological security and farmers' interests. Taking Anhui Province as the research object, this paper systematically sorts out the functional positioning, existing problems and operation logic of the compensation mechanism for farmland protection in major grain-producing areas through literature analysis, field research and case comparison based on the theory of farmland protection externalities and stakeholder theory. The study found that farmland protection in Anhui Province faces realistic dilemmas such as "mismatch between responsibilities and interests", "imbalance between costs and compensation" and "single policy tools": on the one hand, local governments face the dual constraints of fiscal pressure and development assessment in the balance of farmland occupation and compensation, and the enthusiasm of farmers as the main body of farmland protection is suppressed due to the low compensation standards and rigid methods; on the other hand, the current compensation policy focuses on the protection of grain production capacity, and the consideration of ecological service value and loss of farmland development rights is insufficient, and the application of market-based compensation means lags behind. By constructing a multi-compensation framework of "government-led-market-supplemented-social participation", the study proposes: first, to clarify the multiple subjects and objects of cultivated land protection compensation, to incorporate horizontal compensation between local governments, incentives for new agricultural operators, and protection of farmers' rights and interests into policy design, and to establish differentiated compensation standards based on grain output, ecological value and opportunity cost; second, to expand the source of compensation funds, explore market-oriented mechanisms such as cultivated land index trading and ecological product value realization, and integrate central transfer payments, local fiscal budgets and social capital investment; third, to improve the supporting measures of compensation policies, and to improve the effectiveness of policy implementation by establishing a dynamic monitoring system for cultivated land quality, strengthening performance evaluation of compensation funds, and cultivating a social supervision mechanism for cultivated land protection. The research conclusions provide a practical reference for optimizing the cultivated land protection system in major grain-producing areas and promoting regional coordinated development, and also provide new ideas for solving the institutional contradiction of "disconnection between protectors and beneficiaries".