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    Pollution has heavy impact on grain output

2005-12-10 06:40

China's farm produce growing areas are suffering from water, soil and atmospheric pollution which is reducing the nation's grain output by approximately 40 billion kilograms every year, Chinese agriculture experts estimate.

Zhang Lijian, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science, said that pollution threatening agricultural production comes mainly from long-term unreasonable use of chemical compounds such as fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide and growth modifiers, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

It also derives from improper disposal of animal excrement, and from waste from the farmland, the report quoted Zhang as saying at a meeting in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province.

Other pollutant sources include irrigation with industrial and domestic sewage, discharge of extra solid, liquid and gasiform wastes, and acid rain, Zhang said.

Cao Dingxiong, another researcher with the academy, said on Friday that water, soil and atmospheric pollution that individually or combined affects agricultural production has been defined as "agricultural tri-dimension pollution" in China.

Currently, China's arable land is beset with degradation and a decline in fertility, of which farmland with low yield accounts for 40 per cent.

Of total land that has been polluted, farmland accounts for one sixth, with a high content of organic farm chemical residues, said Zhang.

According to the State Administration of Environmental Protection, some 6.5-7 million hectares of farmland were irrigated with industrial and domestic sewage.

Surveys by the Ministry of Water Resources indicate that areas which have suffered from soil erosion have amounted to 3.67 million square kilometres in China, or more than one third of the country's total land area.

To combat "agricultural tri-dimension pollution," farmers need to improve efficiency in use of fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural materials, he said.

(China Daily 12/10/2005 page2)

                 

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