Abstract: [Objective] The main grain producing area have an important strategic position in achieving stable grain production and supply, and improving the cultivated land utilization efficiency in the main grain producing area is an institutional arrangement to guarantee grain security and achieve sustainable agricultural development. [Methods] The innovative two-stage dynamic network DEA model is used to measure the cultivated land utilization efficiency of 179 prefecture-level cities in the main grain producing area from 2010 to 2020, and its spatial and temporal evolution characteristics are analyzed by ArcGIS visualization technology and kernel density estimation, based on which a Tobit model is constructed to explore the factors influencing of cultivated land utilization efficiency. [Results] From 2010 to 2020, the overall efficiency level of the main grain producing area shows a trend of “small decline - rapid rise - fluctuating growth”, and the overall efficiency level is low and still has much room for improvement.By stage, the efficiency level of the production stage is always higher than that of the consumption stage, and the gap between the efficiency levels of the two stages has a tendency to further increase; the improvement of cultivated land utilization efficiency in the main grain producing area is influenced by the combined effect of the efficiency levels of the two stages, with the production stage being the main driver of efficiency improvement and the resistance coming from the efficiency of the consumption stage. By region, Northeast > Middle and Lower reaches of Yangtze River > Yellow and Huaihai regions in terms of cultivated land utilization efficiency, with significant regional imbalance. From the spatial point of view, the overall efficiency and production stage efficiency high value areas are spatially distributed from northeast to southwest, and gradually form a spatial pattern of “high-high” clustering and “low-low” clustering, while the consumption stage efficiency high value areas show a discrete distribution pattern and do not show the development trend of convergence in the direction of upgrading.The external influencing factors of the overall, production and consumption stages are different, involving the level of socio-economic development, urban and rural development, science and technology and agricultural infrastructures, and there are significant differences in the intensity and direction of different factors on the overall and sub-stages of arable land use efficiency in different regions. [Conclusion] Based on this, this paper proposes that in the future, the main grain producing area should not only explore regional differentiated arable land use paths and strengthen cooperation among prefectures, but also focus on the coordination between the convergence rate of the efficiency improvement in the consumption stage and the efficiency gap between the production stage and the consumption stage in each prefecture while improving the efficiency in the production stage.