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Fujian controls farmland reduction
By Li Dapeng and Hu Meidong (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-23 22:05 Fujian Province is to protect
its limited cultivated farmland from dwindling by applying strict control
measures.
The East China province has one of the smallest per capita acreages of
farmland. Governor of the province Huang Xiaojing told the Third Session of the
10th Fujian Provincial People's Congress that the province will again spend 600
million yuan in 2005 -- the same it has spent each year -- in farmland
consolidation and improvement to expand farmland areas and improve quality and
yield.
The provincial government has recently also declared it will carry out the
strictest farmland protection system requested by the State Council.
With per capita acreage of only 0.04 hectare, Fujian has taken a number of
measures to balance making money from farming with protecting the actual land,
said Lin Yibiao, vice-director of the Provincial Land Resources Bureau
Department.
So far, the province has earmarked 1.22 million hectares of basic farmland
for special protection, which accounts for 86 per cent of its total farmland
area.
"To use the farmland in an intensive and reasonable way is considered the
most effective means of protecting the land," Lin said.
He said the province has been building a complete classification supervision
system which will be extended to the whole province by the end of this month, to
improve controls. The system is the first of its kind to be used in the country,
Lin said.
Jiang Guohe, magistrate of the province's Liancheng County and also a deputy
to the People's Congress, said the county government has signed farmland
protection responsibility agreements with every town and village in the county.
Latest statistics from Lin's department suggest that for five consecutive
years the province has managed to compensate farmers for all farmland that has
been taken and used for other purposes.
Last year, while 5,666 hectares of farmland was allocated for non-farming
purposes, compensation was made for 91,000 mu (6,066.7 hectares) of farmland
with a compensation surplus of 5,000 mu (333.3 hectares).
Delayed or even unpaid compensation on farmland taken and used for other
things has been a long-standing problem in some rural areas in China, and
something that has often ended in conflict between governments and farmers.
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