FAO experts express pollution concerns

Experts from a United Nations agency have applauded China's efforts in ensuring food safety but expressed concerns over potential risks posed by soil contamination.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations said, "We have seen a lot of improvements in China but there is much more to be done."

The FAO chief said, "We're concerned about pollution in general," adding that food safety does not only require less use of fertilizers but also better management of water resources.

In May, three rice mills in central China's Hunan province were investigated after rice was found to be contaminated with cadmium, a carcinogenic industrial chemical.

A food safety inspection conducted in the first quarter showed that 44.4 percent of rice and rice products in the city of Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province also contained excessive amounts of cadmium, according to a Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration statement on May 16.

Although the source of the pollutants has not yet been found, heavy metal contained in fertilizers has contaminated irrigation water and arable land.

Agricultural authorities in Hunan said in 2012 that heavy metal pollution has been spreading from urban agricultural production bases to rural areas.

"It's not exactly true that the more fertilizers you use, the more output you get," according to the FAO chief.

China produced about 6.21 million tons of fertilizer in 2011, accounting for about 20 percent of global output and making the country the world's largest fertilizer producer, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed.

China, as the world's largest fertilizer user, consumed about 30 percent of total global output annually.

But its effective utilization rate of pesticides is still lower than that of developed countries, with a 10 to 20 percentage points gap, according to the NBS statistics.

Overuse of fertilizer will increase soil's dependency on pesticides, said Pan Genxing, an agricultural expert with the Nanjing Agricultural University.

Soil and crops are more likely to be affected by pests when they grow in slightly polluted land, thus, the amount and frequency of pesticide use will increase, which further worsens already-contaminated soil, Pan added.

"Soil contamination and food safety problems are inevitable and are bound to occur in high-growth countries," said Merritt Cluff, an FAO economist.

He noted that land and water resources per person was a problem in China.

"China is unique in the respect that land and water scarcity make difficult combinations. Some other countries may have experienced a similar period, but they did not have such high growth pressure," Cluff said.

In order to address these issues, Graziano da Silva and Cluff advised the Chinese government to invest in order to achieve high productivity.

The government should be strict in controlling the use of pesticides and fertilizers, according to Graziano da Silva.

"There is also the issue of consumers rejecting food products that are not up to standard," the chief added.