Scientist worries about soil erosion in Northeast China

Zhou Wei, a researcher in agricultural resources at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said large areas of farmland face problems such as acidification, salinization and soil loss due to improper practices such as the overuse of synthetic fertilizers, resulting in some farmland become unsuitable for farming.

In Northeast China, intensive farming since the 1950s has seen the organic matter content of black soil reduced to between 2.5 and 3.5 percent, down from as high as 10 percent, leading to a fall in grain yields, he said.

In addition to soil degradation, farmland in some places also faces risks from industrial pollution, and risks of being used for commercial purposes for more profit, which threatens food production.

Zhou said agricultural researchers across China have made major achievements in farmland protection over the past five years, including creating methods to improve the fertility of farmland soil in Northeast and South China, and technologies to repair acidified farmland and improve the efficiency of synthetic fertilizer use. More efforts will be made to achieve technological breakthroughs over the next five years, he said.

"A major problem facing protection of farmland in China is lack of research in the field, and related standards on farmland protection are absent," he said.

"Science and technology should play a more important role in solving problems facing farmland protection, such as farmland erosion and pollution, and providing solutions to find a balance between farmland protection and high-yielding crops."

Zhang said that in addition to more investment from the government, a farmland protection law is urgently needed.

"Farmland protection laws are available in some European countries and the United States, but we only have some related regulations," he said.

"We need to establish a law to protect farmland, including preventing it from shrinking in size and degrading in quality.

"We also need to improve education for the public so they have better knowledge of farmland and are aware that soil is limited in quantity and is priceless."