Revealing Regional Inequalities in Farmland Rights in China and Developing a Multi‐Layered Compensation Framework

ABSTRACT China has designated permanent basic farmland (PBF) to ensure national grain security. However, reliance on land use regulation alone has led to territorial development disparities and “non‐grainization” risk. Therefore, the government is urgently pursuing the establishment of a national‐scale compensation system of PBF to promote regional coordinated development. Notwithstanding, the question of “why to provide compensation”—specifically, what is the compensation basis—remains undefined. This study constructed a multi‐layered rights framework by breaking the PBF utilization system into three layers: spatial planning, crop coverage, and ecological elements, corresponding to development rights, planting choice rights, and ecological maintenance rights. We revealed a growing developmental disparity between high‐value and low‐value regions of PBF from 2000 to 2020, creating a significant dilemma: “the more one protects, the poorer one becomes.” Furthermore, within the layer of planting choice rights, the income gap between different crop types has widened, leading to a decrease in per‐unit‐area profitability for PBF. High‐value regions are also incurring increased opportunity cost losses from grain outflows. Additionally, within the layer of ecological maintenance rights, high‐value regions have managed to achieve efficient grain production. However, this efficiency has come at the expense of greater ecological resource consumption, exacerbating sustainability challenges. We further propose a multi‐layered, rights‐based compensation strategy, aiming to inform land governance in China's post‐growth transition, offering valuable insights for global sustainability governance.