Abstract: The quality of cultivated land is related to the problem of cultivated land productivity and food security in China. The study of cultivated land quality is an important issue in the study of land discipline. Using CiteSpace to visualize 996 articles from 1998 to 2018, explore the research center words and emerging words information, research hotspots and evolution trends, the knowledge map of current cultivated land quality research is obtained. The results showed that the research on domestic cultivated land quality can be divided into four periods. After 2007, the number of publications increased sharply. “Land use and cultivated land protection” is the most research direction. The subject of cultivated land quality research is generally carried out around national policies in different periods. The current research hotspot is “spatial difference, supplementary cultivated land and space-time pattern” of cultivated land quality; the research trend of cultivated land quality shows obvious connectivity, and the comprehensive quality concept of cultivated land is gradually applied in the current research. It is suggested that the basic theoretical research on cultivated land quality should be strengthened in the future to identify the key elements of cultivated land quality, and the role of scales in the quality management of cultivated land should be paid attention to.

Key words: quality of cultivated land, CiteSpace, knowledge map