The Chinese government is to improve compensation for farmers whose land is compulsorily acquired with the strict implementation of a new system drawn up by the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR), said a senior official with the MLR on Sunday.

The new examination methods on compensation for farmland, put into effective on August 1, will be the criteria, said the official.

Average per capita farmland has dropped to 1.4 mu, but the government plans to retain at least 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) by the end of 2010.

The government has been maintaining productivity by compensating those whose land is acquired for construction.

The system requires those claiming farmland for construction to pay a compensation fee, farmland reclamation fee, land use fee or other compensation charges.

Enterprises or institutions responsible for compensation should clarify their compensation programs with a specific project and the project, once completed, should be up to the designed requirements.

According to the MLR, farmers reclaimed about the same amount of farmland as was acquired from them last year, but much of the reclaimed land was poor compared with the land they lost.

For example, 67 percent of farmland occupied for construction last year was equipped with irrigation facilities, but only 35 percent of reclaimed land had such facilities.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2006)