This paper uses the extended TPB model to accurately reflect the real conditions of cultivated land protection by farmer households. Based on the data from 1 034 farmer households and willingness of cultivated land preservation model,this paper concludes that there are different motivation factors on famers' willingness of preservation in different arable productivity grades. The result shows that moral variables of all farmer households are the most important motivative factors. High-grade land group is affected by subjective norms,while medium-grade land group is influenced by behavior attitude and subjective norms and low-grade land group is affected by behavior attitude and perceived behavior control. Consequently,this paper proposes several policy suggestions on how to optimize cultivated land protection behavior by farmer households,such as creating a favorable external environment and making incentive policy,setting a good example of farmland protection,making farmland risk-protection mechanisms and compensatory measure and making incentive mechanism for land protection in accordance with different arable productivity grades.