China is a country plagued with resource problems that have previously been attributed to overpopulation. Many experts have now determined that China is not overpopulated but has made short-sighted choices based on immediate needs. One of ChinaÆs greatest resource shortages(the farmland shortage(is due in part to such choices.
China has a large land area, 3,691,521 square miles, but most of that land is arid land that cannot be used for farmland. Therefore, ChinaÆs population is concentrated densely in its large cities, which are located near water sources. As a result of this situation, ChinaÆs arable farmland is prime real estate with a big price tag. Although about 40% of ChinaÆs farmland has been under government protection since 1988, there were no laws to enforce that protection. Local governments have converted farmland to forest and business development as a way of making money for their areas. ChinaÆs farmland area is decreasing at an alarming rate every year, roughly 2%, while its forestland is increasing by approximately .7%. Since some usable land is destroyed by natural disasters, and other land is used for construction, the rapid consumption of ChinaÆs farmland has accelerated to a critical point. The farmland shortage is now so desperate that the government of China is going to take direct government control of farmland to protect from any further farmland losses.
Recent Landsat photos show that the actual reduction in cultivated land to development is occurring 2.5 times faster than previously thought. Furthermore, land converted for other uses has been used and then left as wasteland. The government responded to this discovery by instituting a law in 1997 making unauthorized land transfers punishable by up to five years in prison.
One strategy for saving ChinaÆs farmland has surfaced in the Jhangsu Province. This province plans to combine scattered little villages into m
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