It’s not just where you farm; it’s whether your neighbor does too. How agglomeration economies are shaping new agricultural landscapes
研究巴西马托格罗索州农业前沿地区，发现土地转为农业的可能性与周边土地利用密切相关，且这种空间溢出效应不能仅用自然条件解释，而是反映了周边社会经济动态，对农业规划和土地利用建模有启示。
This article explores the effect of neighborhood land use on land use change in Mato Grosso, Brazil, one of the world’s most dynamic agricultural frontiers. Using an innovative combination of spatial statistics and remotely sensed data, this research shows that the likelihood of an area being converted to agriculture is closely tied to how land is used in a location’s surroundings. The results also suggest that this spatial spillover effect cannot be tied exclusively to the distribution of natural suitability characteristics. Rather, the likelihood of an area being converted to agriculture appears to reflect the dynamic socio-economic conditions of a location’s surroundings. The findings imply that (i) agricultural agencies or experts seeking to support developing agricultural regions should recognize the importance of returns to scale and local clustering and that (ii) land use modeling can be improved by accounting for suitability and land uses in nearby locations.