The third plenary meeting of the 30th session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 26, 2012. Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the meeting. (Xinhua/Fan Rujun)
Hou Jianguo, an NPC Standing Committee member said, "People should realize that high-yield farmland is a precious resource that is nonrenewable."
Hou urged the government to strictly implement the principle of "reclaiming the same area of land as is used."
He added, "Some special protection zones should be set up to better protect high-yield arable land."
China's per capita arable land is only about 1.35 mu, lower than half of the world average. High-yield farmland only accounts for 30 percent of the total arable land and the country has little backup resources available, according to the report.
To ensure grain security, the country has drawn a "red line" of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) as the official minimum of arable land to feed the world's largest population.
However, with rapid urbanization and massive infrastructure construction, the country is already edging dangerously close to the tipping point, with just 1.82 billion mu available as of 2011, figures from the report showed.
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