China's farmland dwindles by 6m ha in 7 years
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-06-25 16:30

China's Land and Resources Minister Sun Wensheng Friday called on the country to value and protect every inch of farmland, as 6.7 million hectares of arable land, or 5 percent of the country's total, was lost to industrial development or other purposes in the past seven years.

In a speech marking the country's 14th "Land Day", the minister said 62 percent of the 6.7-million-hectare farmland was used for ecological conservation, namely, tree planting and grass growing, in a bid to curb soil and water erosion.

The minister said 18 percent of the 6.7 million hectares of arable land was no longer used for grain production but for other agricultural purposes, and 14 percent was used for construction projects, and 6 percent was destroyed by natural calamities.

China has only 123.4 million hectares of arable land, or 0.095 hectares per capita and less than 40 percent of the world's average, said the minister.

The minister said the gradual depletion of farmland aggravates the imbalance of land supply and demand.

Some local governments set up too many development zones while excessive and duplicated projects in some sectors also resulted in depletion and waste of considerable farmland resources.

Forty million farmers lost the farmland they used to make a living during the past two decades of industrialization to non- agricultural development projects, and the issue became a topic of heated discussion at the meeting of China's national legislature Thursday.

Sheng Huaren, vice chairman and secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said those farmers were owed at least 9.88 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in land requisition compensation and relocation fees.

Sheng said the farmers who lost their land might pose a threat to social stability after they spend their limited compensation, unless something was done to enable them to make a living.

Investigators found irregularities in land requisition might have cost the government 20.7 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) during the past several years.

China has delisted 4,735 development zones, or 70.2 percent of the country's total, during a high-profile campaign to crack down on excessive and illegal use of arable land for industrial projects since early last year.

The cancellation helped reduce land earmarked for development zones by 24,100 square kilometers, or 64.4 percent of the planned size, and 2,617 square kilometers of farmland has been retrieved, with 1,324 square kilometers already grown to crops, according to figures released by the ministry.

China's effort to check illegal use of land resources continued this year. The ministry said 42,297 cases of illegal land use have been reported in the first half of the year, and 32, 575 of them have been put under official investigation.

The probes involved 21,689.5 hectares of land, including 13,341 hectares of farmland, and 1,431 hectares of land has been recovered.

The minister said the government would continue rectifying the land market and improve land-use efficiency for the balance of land supply and demand.

Last month, the Chinese government began to rectify land-use deals for construction projects stricken over the past year, and those who are found to violate land-use law and regulations will be punished.

Seven government departments have been involved in the campaign, including the ministries of land and resources, finance, agriculture, construction and supervision, and the State Development and Reform Commission and the State Auditing Administration.

Sun said the government's strategy to contain excessive investment in steel, cement and electrolytic aluminum projects began to pay off through curbing the supply of land. The government will continue the policy of moderately limiting land supply for real estate projects.

Tian Fengshan, Sun's predecessor, was sacked amid the government's high-profile campaign to regulate the country's land market since last year, and most localities that illegally delegated the power of approving land deals to subordinate government departments have taken back such rights.

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