X-From_: tgray  Mon Jan  4 15:05:18 1993
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.biosph-l
Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 15:05:28 PST
Reply-To:     Tom Gray <tgray@IGC.APC.ORG>
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Comments:     Originally-From: Tom Gray <tgray@igc.apc.org>
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From:         Tom Gray <tgray@IGC.APC.ORG>
Subject:      IPS: China in Population Squeeze

/* Written 12:03 am  Dec  9, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary
*/
VCopyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: CHINA: Little land left to feed world's biggest population


an inter press service feature

by deirdre godfrey

beijing, dec 7 (ips) --  as china fast runs out of arable lands
to support its ever-growing population, even its efforts to catch
up with the industrialised world is taking a backseat.

the country's highest governing body, the state council, has
issued a circular prohibiting townships from setting up
industrial development zones, which have proved to be the key to
china's surging economy.

but such industrial parks are eating up china's already
limited reserves of precious farmland, raising the potential for
an agricultural crisis.

''it is inevitable that some farmland will be used during
china's current rapid economic development,'' said the state
council circular released last month, ''but the misuse of land --
especially limited arable land -- has to be halted.''

with more than one billion mouths to feed, china supports
almost a quarter of the world's population -- the biggest
globally -- on only seven percent of its arable land.

a national report on development and the environment says that
while the country's population increases by 15 to 17 million
people a year, its cultivated land shrinks by an average of
300,000 hectares annually.

at present, china has only 0.08 hectares of farmland per
person, or one-fourth of the world average. officials say the
rate of shrinkage has slowed in recent years, but add that a
potential for crisis still looms.

part of the reason lies in soil erosion, which
environmentalists say threaten at least one-third of the
country's total farmlands.

in mid-november, the ministry of water resources released a
report showing that 18 percent of the total national territory
has suffered soil erosion, and described the problem as ''still
growing''.

to prevent the loss of more agricultural land, the state
council has ordered all development zone projects, including
those currently under construction, to undergo full feasibility
studies before being submitted for approval.

it also emphasised that in all cases, the zones should not
occupy large tracts of arable land but should be on wasteland,
including beaches and non-agricultural
(story received incomplete)
0717
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Tom Gray (tgray@igc.apc.org)
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU