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Page added on November 5, 2014
More than 40 percent of China’s Arable Land Degraded
More than 40 percent of China’s arable land is suffering from degradation, official news agency Xinhua said, reducing its capacity to produce food for the world’s biggest population.
The rich black soil in northern Heilongjiang province, which forms part of China’s bread basket, is thinning, while farmland in China’s south is suffering from acidification, the report said, citing agriculture ministry statistics.
Degraded land typically includes soil suffering from reduced fertility, erosion, changes in acidity and the effects of climate change as well as damage from pollutants.
Beijing is growing increasingly concerned about its food supply after years of rapid industrialization resulted in widespread pollution of waterways and farmland.
The country, which must feed nearly 1.4 billion people, has already outlined plans to tackle soil pollution, said to affect around 3.3 million hectares of land.
But as rising incomes place growing pressure on its domestic resources to produce more, high quality food, it is also planning to tackle degraded soil, the report said.
The agriculture ministry wants to create 53 million hectares of connected farmland by 2020 that would allow it to withstand drought and floods better, said Xinhua. Larger farms are more suited to irrigation and other modern farming practices.
It also wants to strengthen the monitoring of arable land management and speed up the legislative process to protect farmland in order to ensure stable food production and farmers’ incomes, the report added.
Currently protecting farmland is difficult as liability for soil contamination is hard to determine, experts say.
The government is drafting a new law to tackle this but it is not expected to be completed until at least 2017.
19 Comments on "More than 40 percent of China’s Arable Land Degraded"
herrmeier on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 8:17 am
Damn it. That must be the evil’s empire doing. Can you help me out here Makati and explain the connection?
kuidaskassikaeb on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 8:29 am
Were gonna run out of dirt before we run out of oil.
Davy on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 8:46 am
Mak, tell me if this Chinese sources are part of the American propaganda machine before I become deceived. Mak is our resident propaganda expert. I know Mak Scientific American is on your propaganda list but are these?
Official news agency Xinhua & agriculture ministry statistics.
OK, the usual we know about China and its lost effort to feed itself in this article. This is a mirror of Asia as a whole. Here is the kicker:
The agriculture ministry wants to create 53 million hectares of connected farmland by 2020 that would allow it to withstand drought and floods better, said Xinhua. Larger farms are more suited to irrigation and other modern farming practices.
All the wrong moves for a soon to be liquid fuel constrained world. What is needed is a back to the land movement before it is too late and the money is gone. Are the Chinese going back to communist communes or are these large farms going to be given to the rich and connected with peasant labor in servitude?
China is heading down the path to famine with a focus on consumption and development. The ecosystem is secondary. The talk about reform does not matter because the damage is done and the economic focus will take years to unwind. These things cannot be dictated effectively from the top. It is clear in China that local governments ignore what they can from the central government.
The Chinese population is too large now and growing. China’s population is not only growing it is growing older. This is the double whammy that will thrust China into a situation of a large population of dependents within an aggregate large population ensuring social tension and food insecurity.
I am not anti-Chinese. I am anti-China as the next supper power and dominant economic power. China will remain strong even if there is a famine and social unrest but don’t expect them to become dominant with a hollow core social structure, economy, and ecosystems.
How do you like that Mak? You still waiving those China flags?
bobinget on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 8:52 am
The solution is obvious. Stop burning coal!
If almost every river and creek in the USA shows strong coal pullution evidence, it’s no secret why China has soil acidification problems. Fall0out from coal can’t compete with chemical degradation of water supplies
in china.
Air Breathers: beware. Now that pro coal, pro AGW
law makers were elected Tuesday, think indoor air and water filtration, small solar and wind to power same.
shortonoil on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 9:58 am
“The solution is obvious. Stop burning coal!”
The problem with coal is not so much acidification of the soil as it is mercury pollution. In another century heavy metal pollution is likely to make the planet uninhabitable to higher life forms. Of course, the nuclear industry is likely to beat coal to the punch!
It is ironic that an animal that is dependent on the development, and implementation of technology as its primary survival mechanism is likely to destroy itself with that same mechanism. As the old saying goes, “nothing fails like success”!
Northwest Resident on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 10:19 am
shortonoil — I know you like to read, but do you read drama? Back in my brief college acting career, I was cast to play a role in “The Physicists”. The plot summary can be found at the link below. Basically, back in 1962, the Swiss writer of this play was looking to get his point across to the audience that humanity will most certainly destroy itself with the technology it creates. We’ve seen this coming for a long time, at least since 1962. But were we smart enough to pay attention? Doesn’t look like it. Of course, it was and still IS the greedy, powerful few who are driving us all over the cliff to satisfy their own lust for power and wealth. Some things never change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Physicists
Davy on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 10:33 am
We need only look back on the esotericism of the early writers of the Circ Christ era chialist, gnostics, Sufies, and the Jewish traditions to see the common theme of world ending actions by our own species upon ourselves. Now science is telling us these things. I believe we can understand we just can’t get our minds around it.
Yet, let’s worry about the next 10 years that time frame is more than enough for a meal.
JuanP on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 11:12 am
Eroded and degraded soils are a terrible waste of resources.
My Florida lot for my weekend hobby Permaculture micro farm is likely to be mostly sand, and I will buy a few truckloads of soil to plant my food garden and fruit trees. I may end up spending more in that soil than I will spend on the lot.
I want 12″ of the best soil I can build on my garden beds and 27 cu.ft. of soil per fruit tree. After that regular composting should be all that’s needed.
Davy on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 11:51 am
Juan, I am planting 17 fruit trees next week. I was planning on mixing compost and vermiculite to a the top soil that is there. This top soil is not bad for mo ozarks but it is not IL or Iowa black dirt. Any advice?
peakyeast on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 2:44 pm
If the chinese themselves says its 40% – then in all likelihood its 80%.
Otherwise we would have heard about all the officials that lost their head.
Charlie Bucket on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 3:40 pm
If only they had a Jesus that could come back from the dead and fix things like we do.
GregT on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 6:06 pm
Charlie,
China is headed towards having the largest Christian population in the world. Here in North America Christianity is actually in decline.
Maybe they know something we don’t?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html
redpill on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 7:33 pm
And on top of that, how much of their “fresh” water is of a quality that could be used to irrigate this planned addition of 53 million hectares?
I wish China the best of luck, they’ve pulled so many out of poverty. But they’ve done so by quite literally destroying their lands ability to support them.
And as Short mentions about mercury pollution from all this coal burning (1/2 of the world’s total), they may be looking at long term IQ degradation from being exposed to this crap.
A belated thank you to those that fought to have scrubbers put on coal stations in the U.S.!
Preston Sturges on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 9:30 pm
Wow a China story that doesn’t have the usual people telling us that America will soon kneel to it’s new Chinese overlords and the vast red army?
China is increasingly dependent on megaprojects of civil engineering, the sort of things that nature like to spoil. Also, everyone of these projects is a fat military target.
Kenz300 on Wed, 5th Nov 2014 11:22 pm
We all need clean air to breath, clean water to drink, and clean soil to grow our food.
When you throw something AWAY…. where is AWAY?
Makati1 on Thu, 6th Nov 2014 1:50 am
Funny how the American “experts” can only see the mote in the other guy’s (country’s) eye. Must not be any mirrors left in the USSA.
Pull the plug on oil/NG based fertilizers and see how “fertile” America’s farms are. Last article I read said that California’s days are numbered and half of the food consumed in the USSA is going to disappear in a cloud of dust. After all, California was and will be a dessert. 2020? Sooner?
China will get it’s food from Russia, if necessary. After all, $4,000,000,000,000.00+ will buy a lot of food. I understand we just increased that number by $20+ billion in September alone. The US spends 5 times the money on Chinese exports as the Chinese spend on American exports. Keep sending money to the largest GDP in the world. (IMF figures)
Makati1 on Thu, 6th Nov 2014 2:01 am
FYI: “National Economic Suicide: The U.S. Trade Deficit With China Just Hit A New Record High”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/national-economic-suicide-the-u-s-trade-deficit-with-china-just-hit-a-new-record-high/5412104
“Increasing Police Brutality: Americans Killed by Cops Now Outnumber Americans Killed in Iraq War”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/increasing-police-brutality-americans-killed-by-cops-now-outnumber-americans-killed-in-iraq-war/5361554
“Blood in the Water”: The Privatization of California’s Water Spells Disaster”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/blood-in-the-water-the-privatization-of-californias-water-spells-disaster/5412026
‘As Infrastructure Crumbles, Trillions Of Gallons Of Water Lost”
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/29/359875321/as-infrastructure-crumbles-trillions-of-gallons-of-water-lost
And the steps down go on…
Davy on Thu, 6th Nov 2014 7:23 am
Funny how the China flag waver on our board desperately spews anti American propaganda when the foundation of his Asia ascendancy beliefs are trashed. China and Asia are a sinking ship because of a hollow export driven economy, food insecurity, and ecological destruction. It is a smallish area with a huge population that will remain powerful but forget the talk of China and Asia ascendance.
The Asian model is increasing consumption to calm its increasing overpopulation which have both hit limits and diminishing returns. Overshoot is what it is just like reality is what it is. This China flag waver is getting a dose of contraction now and shivering because Asia can’t feed itself and the majority of its liquid fuels are from the ME. I see this as the perfect Asian collapse storm scenario.
PrestonSturges on Thu, 6th Nov 2014 10:05 am
China relies on imported food, imported energy, and millions of restless slave laborers. It’s a house of cards ready to fall over.
I’ve met some Chinese graduate students in the US and they despise China and the Communist party. They burn with hatred the Chinese government and they want to see them dead and hanging from lamp posts on every street corner.