Efficiency of land use

Keeping the total area of arable land at no less than 120 million hectares and intensifying the efficiency of land use were the highlights of the publicity for the 18th National Land Day that fell yesterday. It was by no means a meaningless ritual.

June 25 was designated as National Land Day in 1991, when the central government realized the increasingly sharp contradiction between ever-increasing demand for land to facilitate urbanization and industrial development and the imperative to keep enough arable land for food security.

With per capita arable land of only 0.092 hectares, China can never afford to loosen its control on the approval of land transfer for non-agricultural programs. Even with the strict stipulation that occupation of basic farm fields for non-agricultural purposes must have the approval of the central government, irregularities aimed at circumventing the rule occur quite often in various localities.