Abstract: In the past, the physicochemical properties of cropland soils were rarely taken into account when assessing the changes in the quality of transferred-in and transferred-out cropland. The Ili River Basin is an important agricultural and animal husbandry base in Xinjiang, and the natural environment and socio-economy of the Ili River Basin have changed dramatically over the past 30 years. We used the annual China Land Cover Dataset to obtain data on the spatial distribution of cropland in the Ili River Basin in 1990 and 2020, to explore the changes in the amount of cropland as well as the source and distribution of newly added cropland; we compared the newly added cropland and the transferred – out cropland by calculating the Cohen's D value in terms of elevation, slope, organic carbon content, total phosphorus content, total nitrogen content, sand content, and pH, and compare them with the seven major agricultural regions of China. Compared with 1990, the area of cropland in the Ili River Basin in 2020 increased from 6, 196.80 km² to 8, 606.51 km², and the newly added cropland was mainly high-elevation grassland and concentrated on the two sides of the river, this is mainly related to the increase in irrigation and water transfer capacity of the Basin; compared with 1990, the elevation of newly added cropland in 2020 has a large increase in elevation but a small increase in slope (Cohen's D values were 0.851, 0.276). Organic carbon content, total nitrogen content has a medium and a small increase, respectively, but a very small increase or decrease in total phosphorus, sand content, and pH (Cohen's D values were 0.558, 0.308, -0.116, 0.081, and 0.001, respectively), indicating that the soil quality of the newly added cropland in the Ili River Basin is relatively good. Seven agricultural regions of the country are obviously different. Although there is still a large amount of reclaimable grassland in Ili as reserve cropland, which is a potential zone for increasing the area of arable land in the future. For the sustainable development of agriculture in the basin, special attention should be paid in the future to the inadvisability of reclamation in ecologically fragile high-altitude ( such as above 2, 500 m elevation) and steep-slope areas.