China will maintain its drive to return reclaimed farmland to
forest in its western regions, but will proceed with caution to
ensure sustainable development and a better life for farmers.
Li Zibin, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform
Commission, said Thursday in Beijing that the policy was not to
blame for the country’s declining grain harvest. Although the land
reforested previously provided 6.5 million tons of grain,
production efficiencies have enabled remaining farmland to increase
output by 5 million tons. This has resulted in a net reduction of
only 1.5 million tons, Li said.
China’s total grain production plummeted from 512.3 million tons
in 1998 to 430.7 million tons last year, according to the
Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture.
This was caused partly by loss of arable land to urbanization
and industrial expansion and partly by the trend to use more
farmland for cash crops, said Li. Coastal provinces like Jiangsu
and Guangdong,
which were not obligated to return land to forest, saw grain
outputs drop by nearly 30 million tons in 2003 from 1998
levels.
Land that has been reforested in the west includes low yield
fields on steep slopes or those vulnerable to water and soil
erosion. The aim has been to protect the environment, and by the
end of 2004 China will have reconverted over 7.8 million hectares
of farmland to woods and planted trees on 11.3 million hectares of
other land.
The country’s policy of returning reclaimed farmland to forest
will continue in the years ahead, but the emphasis will shift to
increasing the sustainability of farmers’ ways of life.
In addition to helping farmers improve production on remaining
farmland, local governments in the west have moved nearly 800,000
farmers from ecologically harsh areas to places where life is more
feasible, Li said.
He also said he is optimistic that foreign direct investment
will grow rapidly in China’s western regions, which boast abundant
resources and huge market potential.
Western China currently attracts only 4 percent of the total
foreign investment flowing into China, but that figure is on the
rise, according to Li.
(China Daily October
15, 2004)