Abstract:Farming convenience degree (FCD) is an important feature of cultivated land. In order to accurately characterize all requirements of modern agriculture for FCD, the definition and its meaning of FCD were introduced. Then, a systematic and comprehensive evaluation model was constructed and applied in a project area of Dingzhou City in Hebei Province. The results showed that the newly defined FCD put farming efficiency on an importance place, which consisted of field work efficiency and traffic efficiency. Three key indexes were thoroughly studied, including connective degree, field road accessibility and farming distance. Their meaning and acquisition method offered the foundation to obtain FCD accurately. The evaluation results showed that the FCD condition of farmland in the study area was good overall. Based on the comprehensive evaluation score, the farm units were divided into four levels. Among that, totally 82.41% of all farmland area was at the level of very convenient or more convenient. These kinds of units mainly had the feature of convergent distribution and large average land area, and also distributed in the area close to roads. It was the appropriate area for developing high-efficiency agriculture and spreading mechanized farming. On the contrary, it was difficult to exert scale benefit and mechanical tillage for farmland of the grades like general convenient and not convenient, because of their small units and scattered distribution. The research can provide technical support and method reference for the project selection and performance evaluation for well-facilitated farmland as well as the evaluation of cultivated land quality.
