Experts in east China's Zhejiang Province have charted a map specifying the distribution of chemical elements in the soil in the north of the province, the first of its kind in China to serve agricultural purposes.
Presented Sunday to delegates at a national meeting on geological environment studies, the map specifies the distribution of 52 chemical elements in the region and marks with bright colors the pollution caused by heavy metals and pesticide.
Meanwhile, areas of soil shown through data analysis to be of good quality are marked in green. It is understood that the only agricultural high-technology park in the province with a total investment of 500 million yuan (US$60 million) has chosen its site on one of the green areas.
The map was charted on the basis of 380,000 figures obtained through analysis of 16,681 soil samples collected by a research team over the past five years.
Zhang Hongtao, deputy-director of the China Geological Survey Bureau, said distribution and quantity of the 52 chemical elements in the soil were determining factors for the growth of agricultural plants. However, there had never been a systematic research report in China's agricultural history to offer scientific bases to farmers on what should be grown in their fields. The map, he believed, had filled the gap.
Zhejiang leads the country in terms of farmers' income and was the first to allow farmers to decide themselves what they would grow. It is understood that the province plans to finish geological survey over one third of its area by 2004.
The endeavor in Zhejiang is part of a nationwide geological survey for agricultural purposes currently underway over 550,000 square kilometers of land.
Shou Jiahua, vice-minister of Land and Resources, said the survey was the widest of its kind with the largest input in Chinese history. A nationwide map with specifications on chemical element distributions would be worked out upon completion of the survey.
(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2003)
