Effect of landscape-scale farmland fragmentation on the ecological efficiency of farmland use: a case study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Improving the ecological efficiency of farmland use (EEFU) has become an important part of ensuring food security and solving environmental pollution problems. At present, the Chinese government is actively promoting large-scale farmland transfer to reduce the level of farmer-/plot-scale farmland fragmentation (FF), so it is crucial to clarify the effect of landscape-scale FF on EEFU. This study applies the non-dynamic panel and threshold models in an empirical study of the municipal administrative regions along the Yangtze River Economic Belt (2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015). The results reveal that there is a single threshold for the effects of area, shape, and distance fragmentation on EEFU with farmland area per capita (FAPC) as the threshold variable. The threshold values are 1.548, 1.373, and 1.542, respectively. The effects of area and distance fragmentation on EEFU are initially promoted and then suppressed; however, shape fragmentation always has an inhibitory effect on EEFU. These findings suggest that ignoring the condition of FAPC of different regions and promoting large-scale farmland transfer blindly will give rise to the decline of EFFU. These results are conducive to the sustainable utilization of farmland and the formulation of related policies.