1. College of Earth Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China;
2. Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China

As the carrier of food production security, cultivated land transformation has become the key research content of land use type. By means of GIS technology, spatial autocorrelation analysis and other methods, the authors analyze the characteristics of temporal and spatial evolution in Zhenlai County,which is a hot area of “dryland into paddy field” in western Jilin Province from 1980 to 2015, and discuss the driving mechanism of “dryland into paddy field”. Firstly, the areas of concern of “dryland into paddy field” in Zhenlai County are Datun Town, Gashigen Township, Wukeshu Town, and Yanjiang Town. The overall spatial distribution is significantly aggregated, the evolution of the pattern is mainly manifested in the following: concentrated and continuous paddy fields are used as centers, fragmented and irregularly distributed drylands around them have gradually been in the “dryland into paddy field” transformation, and the degree of patch aggregation in paddy fields is increasing. Secondly, the natural conditions of Zhenlai County are more conducive to the growth and development of paddy field. Moreover, in terms of grain yield and farmers' income, paddy fields have more advantages than drylands, which can provide basic guarantees for regional development and national growth. The coordination of the natural conditions, economy, and social levels has led to the continuous expansion of the “dryland into paddy field”.