Barriers and solutions to China’s cultivated land protection

Abstract

In 2008, China’s total area of cultivated land was approximately 121.7 million ha, accounting for 7.8% of the world’s total cultivated land; cultivated land per capita was 0.09 ha, only accounting for 38.2% of the world average. China’s cultivated lands were reduced by 12.31 million ha in the period 1997–2008; that is, a loss of 1.03 million ha per year. Although China implements stringent cultivated land protection policies and in some areas has achieved much success, the rate of reduction of cultivated land through rapid urbanisation, agricultural structure adjustment and ecological restoration has proved uncontrollable. Proposed solutions to China’s cultivated land protection include: 1) learning from the successful experiences of other countries; 2) reforming cultivated land protection measures; and 3) paying more attention to improving the quality of its cultivated lands.

Keywords:

• Cultivated land protection
• Quality improvement
• China

Acknowledgements

I greatly appreciate the constructive and clear comments made by Dr Michael Brett‐Crowther and the referees of this paper. I would also like to express my thanks to the Guest Editor, Dr Xiangjiang Yu, Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University for his valuable encouragement, comments and information.

Notes

1. In No. 7 document of 1986, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (CCPCC) and the Chinese State Council for the first time promulgated the state policy of ‘fully cherishing and reasonably using each inch of land, and protecting land in a realistic way’.

2. In 1997, the CCPCC and the State Council outlined in their No. 11 document the gross dynamic balance system and determined policies that link land occupancy with land development and reclamation.

3. According to FAOSTAT of FAO statistics, the total world population in 2006 was approximately 6.6 billion, and the total cultivated land was 1.55 billion ha. The cultivated land in the US, India and Russia totalled more than that of China; the figures were around 173.3, 169.5 and 123.4 million ha respectively.

4. According to the National Land Use Change Survey, China’s total area of cultivated land in 2001 was 127.6 million ha, which is less than 128 million ha.