The country's food security and social stability will be
threatened if arable land shrinks any further, Land and Resources
Minister Xu Shaoshi warned yesterday.
"The illegal acquisition of arable land (for purposes other than
agriculture) has endangered food safety and social stability both,"
Xu said.
The country needs at least 120 million hectares of arable land
to grow 700 million tons of grains required to feed its people, he
said. But industrial wastes, expanding deserts and salinization
have left 6 million hectares non-cultivable.
What's more, only 40 percent of the country's 133 million
hectares of farmlands have proper irrigation facilities and weather
conditions for growing crops, Xu said.
Illegal acquisition of arable land by grassroots governments
poses another threat, he said. The country is caught between
limited supply of and an unending hunger for land; hence it can
meet only half of its annual demand for land needed for industrial
construction and infrastructure development.
"Given the growing population and fast industrialization and
urbanization, illegal land acquisition will probably continue," Xu
said.
The government's minimum requirement for stable arable land is
120 million hectares, and the availability of only 121.8 million
hectares makes it a "very demanding task to achieve the goal"
because of variable factors such as droughts and floods, he
said.
Quality arable land, which accounts for only a third of the
total, is found mainly in the southeastern parts of the country.
But again the demand for industrial and commercial land in that
region is very high.
Per capita arable land in six provinces and municipalities,
including Guangdong and Fujian, and Beijing, has already dropped to
below 0.016 hectares, which according to the UN is the minimum
needed for food safety.
Xu's warning came at a national conference. Citing figures from
recent surveys, Xu said governments at the county, township and
village levels are major violators of farmland use rules.
For instance, the ministry's crackdown on illegal farmland
acquisition that began in September has thrown up 20,000 cases in
which grassroots governments rented out 24,000 hectares of farmland
illegally.
(China Daily December 26, 2007)
