About 37.1 percent of Chinese land area, or 3.56 million square
kilometers, is suffering from soil erosion, with about 5 billion
tons of soil eroding away annually, said China's top environment
watchdog.
"Most soil erosion have taken place in the country's mountainous
area and sandstorm-hit regions, especially at the upper and middle
reaches of rivers," shows a "communique on China's 2005 environment
condition" which was published recently by the State Environmental
Protection Administration (SEPA).
It said among the 3.56 million square kilometers of soil erosion
land, 165 million is eroding by water, another 191 million by
wind.
Human activities are also reducing China's plowland area.
Statistics show that from 1998 to 2005, the country's plowland
has been decreased by 7.6 million hectares, 1.42 million hectares
of which are occupied by construction. About 2.13 million hectares
of plowland has been restored after land rectification and
improvement.
Around 10 million hectares of China's arable land, or more than
one tenth of the country's total cultivated land, have been
polluted by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, plastic films or
dirty water, according to the SEPA.
Most of the polluted arable land is located in the country's
economically developed areas, it said, adding crops damaged by
heavy metals amount to 12 million tons each year, causing economic
losses of 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) in China.
China has about 120 million hectares of arable land, 13 percent
of its land area.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2006)
