This book systematically investigates the strategy and practice of comprehensive land consolidation in China by assessing the objective of the program and its implementation. In the first part of the book, the authors first review the development and historical policy of land consolidation and land rehabilitation, with a focus on initiatives inaugurated in China since the 1980s. The following three chapters analyze different modes, approaches, and measures of land consolidation. The second part focuses on planning patterns designed and implemented in different territorial and geographical regions in China, including urban and rural areas, ecological function zones, mining areas, and coastal regions and islands. It also looks into the institutional basis, supportive measures, and mechanisms for the coordinated regional implementation of land consolidation at the macro, medium, and micro levels. Based on their findings, the authors advance ten actionable policy suggestions on the promotion of China’s land consolidation. The title will appeal to scholars, students, and policy makers interested in economic management, land planning, and natural resources management.

Land consolidation can be an effective instrument to improve and reform land tenure structure in support of integrated rural development by addressing problems of land fragmentation. This guide has been prepared to support land administrators in land agencies responsible for the technical design and implementation of land consolidation pilot projects in transition countries. Issues considered include: advice on starting a land consolidation pilot project; why land consolidation should be considered within agricultural and rural development policies and programmes; key elements of land consolidation and how it can be introduced in different situations; and rules needed to govern responsibilities and procedures during the pilot project.

To feed its 1.2 billion people, China may soon have to import so much grain that this action could trigger unprecedented rises in world food prices. In Who Will Feed China: Wake-up Call for a Small Planet, Lester Brown shows that even as water becomes more scarce in a land where 80 percent of the grain crop is irrigated, as per-acre yield gains are erased by the loss of cropland to industrialization, and as food production stagnates, China still increases its population by the equivalent of a new Beijing each year. When Japan, a nation of just 125 million, began to import food, world grain markets rejoiced. But when China, a market ten times bigger, starts importing, there may not be enough grain in the world to meet that need - and food prices will rise steeply for everyone. Analysts foresaw that the recent four-year doubling of income for China's 1.2 billion consumers would increase food demand, especially for meat, eggs, and beer. But these analysts assumed that food production would rise to meet those demands. Brown shows that cropland losses are heavy in countries that are densely populated before industrialization, and that these countries quickly become net grain importers. We can see that process now in newspaper accounts from China as the government struggles with this problem.

This open access handbook brings together the latest research from a wide range of internationally influential scholars to analyze educational policy research from international, historical and interdisciplinary perspectives. By effectively breaking through the boundaries between countries and disciplines, it presents new theories, techniques and methods for contemporary education policy, and illustrates the educational policies and educational reform practices that various countries have introduced to meet the challenges of continuous change. This volume focuses on policies and changes in schools and classrooms. The studies on school changes present the differences in the policies and challenges of K-12 schools and universities in different countries and regions, and in connection with the contradictions and conflicts between tradition and modernization, as well as the changing roles of various stakeholders, especially that of teachers. In terms of curriculum and instruction, many countries have undertaken experiments and introduced changes based on two major themes: “what to teach” and “how to teach”. International education assessments represented by PISA not only promote the improvement and extensive application of educational assessment and testing techniques, but have also had far-reaching impacts on education policies and education reforms in many countries. Focusing on the changes in educational policies at the micro level, this volume comprehensively reveals the complex interactions between school organizations, teachers, curricula, teaching and learning, evaluation and other elements within the education system, as well as the latest related reforms worldwide.

This book systematically investigates the strategy and practice of comprehensive land consolidation in China by assessing the objective of the program and its implementation. In the first part of the book, the authors first review the development and historical policy of land consolidation and land rehabilitation, with a focus on initiatives inaugurated in China since the 1980s. The following three chapters analyze different modes, approaches, and measures of land consolidation. The second part focuses on planning patterns designed and implemented in different territorial and geographical regions in China, including urban and rural areas, ecological function zones, mining areas, and coastal regions and islands. It also looks into the institutional basis, supportive measures, and mechanisms for the coordinated regional implementation of land consolidation at the macro, medium, and micro levels. Based on their findings, the authors advance ten actionable policy suggestions on the promotion of China's land consolidation. The title will appeal to scholars, students, and policy makers interested in economic management, land planning, and natural resources management.

This book discusses contemporary China’s land use policy – the Link Policy – which calls for land consolidation and rural resettlement to achieve the goal of preserving farmland while also providing more space for urban development. Given the limited analyses and commentaries on the Link Policy in the literature, particularly in English-language articles, the book systematically presents and analyzes China’s land use policy by assessing the impacts of the Link Policy on rural life and how effective the Link Policy is in achieving its objectives. It also examines how satisfied farmers are with the policy and what the contributing factors are. Drawing on a critical review of the literature, field observations and interviews with resettled farmers, the book offers insights into China’s land use policy, and compares it with similar policy instruments in other countries. Presenting research findings that help readers gain a holistic understanding of the Link Policy in China and its implications, the book is a valuable resource for professionals in other developing countries that are facing similar challenges in terms of balancing urban development and farmland conservation.

Intended as a comprehensive guide to the study of land use and rural development, this book offers detailed descriptions of land use transitions and rural restructuring. To do so, it chiefly focuses on three main aspects, the first of which is the application of geographical perspectives in order to understand rural issues in connection with urbanization, industrialization, globalization and rural vitalization strategies in contemporary China. Secondly, it presents a rich blend of regional and national analyses; detailed explorations of local cases; and critical and theoretically informed discussions that address historical paths and future projections. Lastly, it adapts concepts derived from western literature to situations and experiences in rural China, and provides empirical evidence from an “insider” perspective. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, and for graduate students / courses in geography and sociology.

•The focus of published narrative on the great Chinese urbanization wave was always going to sharpen _ away from the general fascination, assertions, theories and commentaries to specific issues and specific regions. Well here is a first class example

Land consolidation is a highly effective land management instrument that allows for the improvement of the structure of agricultural holdings and farms in a country, which increases their economic and social efficiency and brings benefits both to right holders as well as to society in general. Since land consolidation gives mobility to land ownership and other land rights, it may also facilitate the allocation of new areas with specific purposes other than agriculture, such as for public infrastructure or nature protection and restoration. Land consolidation instruments necessitate a thoroughly elaborated legal regulation that is integrated into the national legal framework. This legal guide provides detailed guidance on legislative issues regarding land consolidation in ways that align with Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security and international human rights law. It focuses on land consolidation in rural areas and is based on regional good land consolidation legislative practices in Europe, primarily on analysis of the regulatory practices in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Serbia, Spain (Galicia) and Turkey. It also uses land consolidation regulatory practices in other European countries as a source of information. This legal guide is published in collaboration with the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia.

Agricultural landholdings in China have an average size of only 0.53 hectares and are divided over six different plots on average. This very high degree of land fragmentation is likely to impose important constraints to current government policies aimed at supporting the incomes of rural households, raising domestic grain production, and promoting the overall production capacity of agricultural sector in order to meet the challenges posed by foreign competition. The purpose of this study is to examine the causes of this extremely high degree of land fragmentation and its consequences for food production in China. The analysis focuses in particular on rice smallholders in Jiangxi Province, a major rice production base of China.