Guangzhou, Guangdong -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/25/2012 -- Aiming to decrease the grain security risk brought up by the declining area of arable land and reinforce national grain security guarantee ability, China plans to increase the area of arable land by 1.6 million ha. during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), based on CCM International’s latest issue of Crop Protection China News.

On 24 April, 2012, Ministry of Land and Resources of China (MLR) held a news briefing interpreting the policy released on 26 March, 2012, namely National Land Consolidation Planning (2011-2015). According to Dong Zuoji, an official from MLR, China will make great effort to the consolidation of land in the rural and city areas, especially those rural construction lands that are now abandoned, idle and inefficiently used. He said that within four years time from now on, China will increase effective area of arable land by 1.6 million ha. before 2015.

Moreover, despite the plan above, China also plans to build up high standard farmland of 26.67 million ha. during this period. This kind of farmland is with many advantages compared with normal farmland in China, such as well-equipped facilities, high and stable yield, good ecological environment, strong anti-disaster capacity. The total investment of the plan is predicted to reach USD95.24 million. After the construction of the high standard farmland project, China's grain production capacity is predicted to increase by 25,000,000t/a.

The plan will be executed in several stages in four years time. So far, the first stage of the plan has been issued to 31 provincial governments and municipal governments in China. The goal of the plan in first stage is to finish the construction of the high standard farmland with an area of 6.67 million ha. in 2012. The remaining 20 million ha. of the construction area is regulated to be finished in the coming three years. Actually, the construction of high standard farmland is also considered to be a different way for Chinese government to encourage large-scale plantations in China.

As the urbanization in China is speeding up, the arable land in China has been shrinking quickly in the past few years. Stopping the arable land shrinking and defending the red line of 120 million ha. of arable land have became urgent tasks for the Chinese government. Even though it has carried out policies to stimulate peasants' planting enthusiasm, the prices of main grains have been restrained by the Chinese government at a certain level to maintain the stablization of prices. Thus the peasants' income still remains at a relatively low level which leads to the continuous shrinking of arable land area.

Eyeing the area of arable land can't be efficiently increased, the quality of the arable land is considered to be a very important factor for improving grain capacity. It has been calculated by an agricultural department in Shandong Province that grain output will increase by about 2.25 tonnes while the area of high standard of basic farmland increases for one ha. With the prediction that Chinese population will reach the peak in 2030, China has to build up at least 66.67 million ha. of high standard farmland to meet the grain demand.

Source: Crop Protection China News 1208
http://www.cnchemicals.com/Newsletter/NewsletterDetail_16.html

Content of Crop Protection China News 1208:
China to build up large areas of high standard farmland in 2011-2015
Jiangsu Yangnong: net profit surges by 40.73% in Q1 2012
Jiangsu Changqing to rebuild imidacloprid production line
Thaihot Group to accelerate expansion in organic fluorine industry
Nanjing Redsun to found a pesticide subsidiary
China: lots of work need to be done on pesticide residue
Agricultural enterprises show great interest in unmanned helicopter spraying market
Planting acreage of early rice in China realizes recovery growth
Wheat diseases and pests to seriously occur in 2012

Crop Protection China News, a semimonthly publication issued by CCM International on 15th and 30th(31st) of every month, aims to gain a deep insight into Chinese market, supply the latest market data and strategy support, analyze the newest legislation and policy and grasp the future market trend.

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