China's shortage of farmland is expected to exceed 6.67 million
ha by the year 2020, a senior official with the Ministry of
Agriculture told Xinhua on Monday.
Fan Xiaokang, vice-minister of Agriculture, told Xinhua on the
sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the Tenth National
People's Congress, China's parliament, that China's farmland
resources are "very limited".
Official statistics show that China has 122 million ha of
farmland, accounting for less than 7 percent of the world total. Of
the total, only 104 million ha - 106.67 million ha is used for
grain production.
"It's a tough job for China to ensure grain security with this
amount of farmland," Fan said.
An average of nearly one million ha was lost each year between
1996 and 2004, Fan said, but the loss dropped to 360,000 ha in 2005
thanks to tough measures imposed by the government.
China's territory is 9.6 million square kilometers. More than 60
percent of the total population, however, lives on the plains and
basins that make up less than one-third of the nation's
territory.
One third of China's area is mountainous, about one quarter of
the area is plateau, and about 10 percent is hilly.
(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2006)