Abstract: The problem of farmland abandoned is an important and critical issue of the long-term food safety and stability in China. Whether this problem can be effectively governed not only plays a key role in the construction of ecological civilization and the inheritance of rural culture, but also concerns the smooth implementation of rural revitalization strategy and the solution of ‘three rural issues’. After a comprehensive review of relevant scholarly reports and documents about China's farmland abandonment, this paper has calculated and analyzed the multiple cropping index and its developing trend during the period 2002-2017 based the national annual grain cultivated area data from the annual statistical bulletin of National Bureau of Statistics and the annual cultivated area data of China from ‘China Rural Statistical Yearbook’. By doing so this paper has identified the status quo situation, as well as major affecting factors, of farmland abandonment in China. The results show that:(1) The existing pattern of China farmland abandonment is characterized by extensive distribution with significant spatial imbalances, simultaneous increases of abandoned area and abandoned rate, large proportion of recessive abandonment, limited effects of governance regulations and so on. (2) Main causing factors of farmland abandonment include the resource endowment of farmland, agricultural production environment, farmers' cultural values, comparative income, the loss of rural population, governmental intervention and restriction. This article also proposes several possible countermeasures and suggestions in coping with the problem of farmland abandonment.