August 25, 2011

President Hu Jintao said Tuesday (August 23) that China should step up land-saving efforts and continue to adopt strict regulations on the protection of arable land.

Hu called for more frugal use of land for new construction projects, stating that developers should refrain from using arable land for new projects.

While China is large in terms of both its area and population, the amount of available arable land it possesses is scarce, he said

"While we are satisfying our needs for development, we should also take the development of future generations into consideration," he added.

Hu said that the nation should speed up its reclamation of rural land for growing crops. He also called for less reliance on land resources for economic growth, adding that land should be guaranteed for the nation's affordable housing construction efforts.

The government also needs to standardise its management of home demolitions and protect farmers' rights and interests, he said.

To ensure grain security, China sets a "red line" to guarantee its arable land never shrinks to less than 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares). But the 1.3-billion-people nation is facing growing challenges due to rapid urbanisation and massive infrastructural construction.

Data from the Ministry of Land and Resources shows the country is already edging dangerously close to its "red line," with just 1.826 billion mu available as of the end of 2009.