Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters 23 Jun 09;
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has halted a program of letting marginal farmland return to woodland, because of fears the country's arable land area could fall below a "red line" needed to feed its people, a vice minister said on Tuesday.
Lu Xinshe, deputy head of the Ministry of Land and Resources, said China was losing too many fields to industrialization to allow any more land to be returned to its natural state.
"To protect our "red line" of 1.8 billion mu of arable land ... we will not plan any new large scale projects to return farmland to its natural state, beyond those that have already been planned," he told a news conference in the Chinese capital.
Self-sufficiency in grains has been a China priority for decades, and sometimes led to farming on marginal land that might be better suited for grazing livestock or growing crops other than grains.
The policy was revised as in some areas it contributed to rising environmental problems like sandstorms and drought.
But the impact of industrialization on a country with already low farmland per capita means the government will not be backing further away from intrusive farming practices.
China is already edging dangerously close to its "red line" of 1.8 billion mu of arable land, with just 1.826 billion mu (121.7 million hectares) available the end of last year, Liu told a news conference.
"If we just look at the overall data, it is unimaginable that China could hold the 1.8 billion mu 'red line', as China is still in the period of fast industrialization and urbanization, and taking over some arable land is inevitable," Lu said.
Every plot of arable land taken up for housing or industrial projects is supposed to be replaced by an equivalent parcel of land freed up by consolidation of smaller plots or takeover of former industrial housing.
"Every year around 4 million mu of land is added," Lu said.
But as legal compensation for expropriated cropland is much lower than the price the land fetches for industrial or residential development, there are many incentives for local officials to rezone or simply seize land. Land sales are also a major source of revenue for local governments.
Trying to prevent arable land from disappearing could help stave off anger from dispossessed farmers.
Land disputes are one of the major sources of unrest in China, and a particular concern for a Communist government that originally seized power with the support of discontented farmers.
Lu said senior officials would be punished when illegal occupation of arable land accounted for over 15 percent of total land seizures in an area.
(Editing by Jerry Norton)
China suspends reforestation project over food shortage fears
Environmental restoration plan scrapped to grow crops as concerns increase over feeding world's largest population
Jonathan Watts, guardian.co.uk 23 Jun 09;
Food shortage fears have prompted the Chinese government to suspend the reforestation of marginal arable land, a senior government official said today .
The sacrifice of a key environmental restoration project for crop production highlights the growing problem of feeding the world's biggest population as cities expand into farmland and urban residents consume more meat and vegetables.
Lu Xinshe, deputy head of the ministry of land and resources, said the country was struggling to hold the 120 million hectare "red line" considered the minimum land areas needed for food self-sufficiency.
With industrialisation eating into the countryside, he said the government would halt plans to restore arable land to nature.
"We will not plan any new large scale projects to return farmland to its natural state, beyond those that have already been planned," he was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.
Any change in the balance of food production causes unease in a country where the elderly still remember the devastating famines of the early 1960s that killed between 15 million and 40 million people.
But the decision to halt many environmental restoration programmes is likely to have a knock-on effect. The government has been compensating farmers in the north and west of China to give up farmland as a central pillar of its strategy to fight desertification and water shortages. The end of ploughing helps stabilise the soil, while stopping irrigation alleviates water shortages.
Tree planting has also helped the country offset the increased emission of carbon dioxide from factories.
But food is the more immediate priority. By the end of last year, the amount of arable land in China had decreased to within 1% of the "red line."
Against the backdrop of rising global food prices, Chinese companies have bought the rights to farm swaths of land in the Philippines, Laos, Russia, and Kazakshstan. They have invested in biofuel crops in Zambia and the Congo. By one estimate there are now one million Chinese farmers in Africa.
But the government is committed to self-sufficiency, which requires the production of 500 million tonnes of grain a year. To maintain this level, prime minister Wen Jiabao has said the state would increase spending on agricultural production by 20%, well above inflation.
He has also asked advisers to recommend new areas where cultivation can be expanded. Among the areas suggested is the Sanjiang region in Heilongjiang, a protected wetland.
But as The Guardian reported last month, the pressure to industrialise the far western province of Xinjiang is likely to further erode food output, reducing the government's options. With industrialisation set to continue for decades, the shrinkage of land is likely to increase the pressure to use more fertiliser and genetically modified crops. A fifth of the nation's paddy fields now grow hybrid strains of rice, according to a report today by the Xinhua news agency.
