Land compensation for farmers up more than 30%

BEIJING - Compensation for farmers whose land is expropriated has increased by more than 30 percent since 2008 as a result of land acquisition reforms, a top official said Tuesday.

Xu Shaoshi, minister of Land and Resources, said farmers' compensation and subsidies resulting from land expropriation and demolitions hit 3.5 trillion yuan ($561 billion) between 2008 and 2011.

More than 25 million farmers were covered by the social security network during the same period after their land was expropriated, said Xu, citing a State Council report on land administration that was submitted to the ongoing session of the top legislature for deliberation.

Xu said the reforms have adhered to the principles of "narrowing the scope of land expropriation, standardizing expropriation procedures, raising compensation standards and ensuring the farmers' relocation."