Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 209 Study on Driving Forces in Quantity Changes of Cultivated Land in

In the past few years, with continuous increase in population and rapid development of economy, the total quantity of cultivated land in Yubei District in Chongqing has reduced year by year and the binary relation between changes in cultivated land and economic growth becomes more prominent. In this article, the authors use the statistic data between the year 1997 and the year 2006 to analyze and discuss changes in cultivated land area in the past decade in Yubei District and further discuss the driving factors that affect changes in utilization of cultivated land by using the principal component analysis method on that basis and set up a multiple regression model. The research result shows that, the total tendency of the quantity of cultivated land in Yubei District exhibits a declining trend year by year and changes in cultivated land protection policy, permanent asset investment and agricultural population conversion level are the major macro driving factors that affect changes in the quantity of cultivated land in Yubei District. Therefore, it will be critical in determining changes in quantity of cultivated land in Yubei District in the future to persistently carry out and implement the national cultivated land protection policy, enlarge investment in land consolidation and coordinate contradictions between economic development and cultivated land protection