Spatial Differences of Specialty Agriculture Development in the Mountainous Areas of China -"One Village, One Product" as an Example

With the rapid development of urbanization, arable land abandonment is accelerating in China's mountainous areas. Alleviating the problem of land abandonment has emerged as an important issue of arable land use in China. To alleviate the abandonment of arable land, one of the key counter measures is to develop specialty agriculture based on the unique natural environments in mountainous areas. In this study, we use the "One Village One Product" datasets of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China as an example for analyzing the horizontal distribution and vertical differences of specialty agricultural in the mountainous areas of China. The results show that the horizontal distribution pattern of specialty agriculture has formed eight main circles in the mountainous areas of China. It is very interesting that these circles are mostly distributed in the border areas of two or three provincial administrative units, and the largest circle is in the border area of Chengdu and Chongqing. In terms of the vertical distribution pattern, the specialty agriculture in China's mountainous areas is mainly distributed at low altitudes, i.e., below 500 m, and at gentle slopes of 4°- 8°, and with increases in altitude or slope, the overall amount of specialty agriculture declines rapidly