This chapter investigates the interlinked transformations of rural labor, farmland use, agricultural development, and environmental change in China, with a focus on the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. It documents shifts in rural employment patterns, highlighting spatially uneven declines in agricultural labor amid urbanization and industrial expansion. Concurrent changes in farmland area and per capita availability reflect demographic restructuring and land-use competition, exacerbated by urban encroachment and policy constraints. Agricultural productivity has improved through rising grain yields, yet the sector’s economic share continues to shrink. Meanwhile, the intensified application of agricultural inputs, particularly chemical fertilizers, has precipitated pervasive non-point source pollution and threatened ecological sustainability. The chapter emphasizes spatial heterogeneity in both socio-economic trends and environmental pressures, revealing divergent regional trajectories. By integrating labor dynamics, land transitions, productivity shifts, and environmental impacts, the analysis calls for more differentiated, regionally tailored strategies to reconcile agricultural development with ecological resilience under ongoing rural transformation.