| Based on factor analysis and GIS techniques, this paper, using the cultivated farm land and population-e-
conomy data from 1978~2008, analyzed characters and dynamic evolution of the cultivated farm land in Xinjiang in both temporal and spatial aspects. Here are some conclusions:①The areas of cultivated farm land has showed fluctuation，but overall increasing trend while the cultivated farm land area per capita has showed slightly decreasing trend since the re-form and opening up in Xinjiang.②There is a clear spatial difference of the cultivated farm land in each city compared with the whole region of Xinjiang. Based on the relativity change index of the cultivated fam land, we can categorize the cities to three types: slowly increasing areas, fast increasing areas and faster increasing area. Based on the gravity formu-la，we can see that the cultivated fam land gravity moves 97.9530 km to northeast during the past 31 years.③As a re-sult of factor analysis, the 9 driving forces affecting the cultivated fam land changes are analyzed and classified into three types:pressure of population, socio economic factors, the level of agricultural structure adjustment and technical factors.
Finally，this paper studies the reasons of cultivated land of growth and volatility，providing the basis of easing the pres-sure and rational use of the cultivated farm land. |