2% of arable land contaminated

About 3.3 million hectares of China's farmland, nearly 2 percent of the country's arable land, is too polluted to be used for growing crops, according to the result of the second national land survey released by the Ministry of Land and Resources on Monday.

The affected areas are mostly in developed regions and authorities plan to spend tens of billions of yuan every year on restoring the polluted arable land. Land which was polluted by heavy metal or affected by excessive exploitation of groundwater, will be especially targeted, said Wang Shiyuan, vice minister of land and resources, noting that the pollution is threatening food security.

Media reports had revealed that rice with dangerous levels of cadmium was sold in the southern city of Guangzhou, Guangdong province in May. The rice was grown in Hunan province, a major heavy metal-producing region.

"The pollution is mainly caused by intense industrial development, overuse of chemical fertilizers, agricultural mechanization and improper disposal of household garbage in rural areas," Li Zuojun, a deputy director at the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the Global Times. He noted that to strictly enforce prevention of new pollution will be more efficient than being forced to clean it up afterward.

Statistics show that China's arable land totaled about 135.4 million hectares by the end of 2012, larger than that in previous land surveys.

However, the area of actual available arable land is just slightly above the redline of 120 million hectares, which has to be reserved for agriculture to ensure food security, after deducting land set aside for forest and pasture restoration, or land deemed not suitable for farming because of pollution.

The three-year survey showed that China's per capita arable land area shrank to 0.101 hectares by the end of 2009, far below the world average of 0.225, Wang said. China must step up efforts to guarantee the arable land redline and strive to maintain food self-sufficiency, as the per capita figure is still decreasing due to a growing population and accelerating urbanization, he noted.

Urban land has increased by nearly 2.79 million hectares from the last survey conducted in 1996, mostly occupying good quality arable land, but the area available for cultivation now is very limited in many places.

"To guarantee the 'redline,' local governments need to change their pursuit of GDP, which can cause overwhelming urbanization," Li said, noting that the issue was stressed in the comprehensive reform released after a key Party plenary in November and governments' performances still remain to be observed.