Abstract: 【Objective】 The objective of this study is to investigate the arable land resources of Africa, the second largest continent in the world, to accurately reveal the dynamic changes in cultivated land use and its eco-environmental factors over 2000-2010. 【Method】 The 2000 and 2010 Africa’s cultivated land layers of GlobeLand30, the world's first global land cover datasets at a 30 m resolution, were combined to understand the area, spatial pattern and intensive use changes in cultivated land at different scales and regions. 【Result】 During 2000-2010, the total cultivated land in Africa had increased by 1 540.06×10⁴ hm², with a net change rate of 7.42%. At regional level, Central Africa (10.42%) had the largest change rate of cultivated land use, which was followed by East Africa (9.49%), West Africa (7.55%), North Africa (6.74%) and South Africa (4.86%). The top ten countries with largest increase of cultivated land area were: Nigeria, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique, Chad, Algeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso, while Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Angola, Ghana, Malawi, Tunisia, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, and South Africa were the top ten countries with largest decreased cultivated land area. The multiple cropping index was 98.11% in 2010 and its change rate was 13.54% during 2000-2010. There was obvious difference in cultivated land change across regions. In general, cultivated land increased at longitude or latitude zones, among which the Eastern Hemisphere and Northern Hemisphere increased most. The increased cultivated land was mainly from forest, grassland and shrub, accounting for 15.19%, 66.37% and 11.20%, respectively, while the decreased cultivated is due to the conversion from cultivated land to forest, grassland and shrub, accounting for 21.15%, 61.19% and 11.78%, respectively. The area of increased cultivated land was much larger than the decreased cultivated land. In terms of the relationships between cultivated land change and eco-environment factors, the most obvious change in cultivated land were at zones with average temperature of 20-30 ºC and an average annual precipitation of 600-1 200 mm, and zones with elevation of 500-1 000 m and slope of less than 2 degrees. 【Conclusion】 The cultivated land area as well as its spatial patterns in Africa changed significantly over 2000-2010, and there were obvious differences across regions and countries. This study has explored the change characteristics of spatio-temporal patterns of cultivated land in Africa, the results of which provides the essential information for analyzing the spatial distribution of global cultivated land and understanding the change patterns and associated differences across different regions. It can also offer scientific guidance on agricultural decision making and land ownership adjustment in regions with significant cultivated land change so as to improve its food production and to guarantee the global food security.

Key words: Africa, cultivated land, spatial pattern, change, GlobeLand30