A Sino-German laboratory opened Saturday in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, to promote cooperative studies of soils.

The laboratory, named the Sino-German Cooperation Group of Soil and Environment, is funded by the Sino-German Center for Science Promotion.

The laboratory is located in Nanjing Institute of Pedology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and aims to build a platform to enhance exchanges between experts on soils and environment in the two countries.

Although China has 133.33 million hectares of farmland, its per capita farmland is below a third of the world's average. Soil quality has been degenerating, forming a direct threat to the country's food security and sustainable development.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2003)