The English language newspaper cited officials with the Ministry of Land and Resources as saying that most of the new cultivated land will come through reclamation and developing scattered lands, instead of developing wasteland.

The development of scattered lands is expected to create about 6 million more hectares of farmland in the long run, the newspaper said.

Moreover, there are still 4 million hectares of abandoned mining and construction sites, 38 percent of which can be effectively transformed into arable land through reclamation.

Under the new program, the ministry aims to maintain an adequate stock of farmland, which is under increasing threat from the country's construction boom.

China had a total of 126 million hectares of cultivated land by the end of this year, said the paper.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2003)