This Day, That Year

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

On June 25, 1991, China celebrated its first Land Day to raise public awareness about the importance of land resources, as seen in a photo from China Daily (right).

Fast economic development, urbanization and industrialization over recent decades have brought a rapid loss of farmland.

Authorities have made rigorous efforts to protect the country’s arable land and shore up its food security.

In 1994, the Basic Farmland Protection Regulation was passed, which requires the designation of basic farmland protection districts at the township level and prohibits any conversion of land in those districts to other uses.

In 1999, the Land Administration Law was implemented.

Early this year, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, issued a document to hold provincial governments and officials accountable for farmland protection.

By 2020, China aims to build a national soil monitoring network to aid its efforts to prevent and control soil pollution.

The latest data on soil pollution were released in 2014, based on a survey jointly conducted by the country’s environmental and land watchdogs.

It was found that 16 percent of the randomly selected spots surveyed within an area of 6.3 million square kilometers were polluted.

China had a total of 1.35 million sq km of arable land at the end of 2016.