As China’s leaders continue to pursue sweeping urbanization plans, concerns are growing about the fate of the country’s cropland. The latest sign: a joint ministerial announcement that officials must protect agricultural plots on city outskirts from runaway development.
Prime arable land bordering municipalities and towns and located near traffic routes will be formally categorized as “permanent basic farmland” and preserved for cultivation, announced the Ministry of Land and Resources and Ministry of Agriculture in a notice issued on Monday. Fourteen cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, will be first to carry out the policy, which is to be rolled out nationwide by the end of 2016.
“During rapid urbanization, high-yield farmland has been gradually ‘eaten’ by steel and cement,” said Land and Resources Minister Jiang Daming, reported the official Xinhua News Agency on Nov. 3. “It is a pressing problem that the expansion of cities is encroaching on prime farmland,” said the notice.
via As China Urbanizes, Fears Grow That Cropland Is Vanishing – Businessweek.
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