July 20, 2006

Pollution in China causes at least US$2.5 billion in grain losses every year

Pollution is affecting 10 percent of China's arable land, harming the country's grain output and causing a danger to public health, Zhou Shengxian, head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said in a statement posted on the bureau's website (Jul 20).

More than 12.3 million hectares of arable land, mostly in regions such as the eastern Yangtze River Delta and southern Pearl River Delta, is polluted by harmful substances or ruined by solid waste, Zhou said.

Around 12 million tonnes of grain produced every year is affected by heavy metal pollutants in the soil, involving more than RMB20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) of economic losses, Zhou said.

The State Environmental Protection Administration is investing RMB 1 billion (RMB 125 million) between this year and 2008 to evaluate the country's land quality.