China has urged local governments to stop "rampant" misuse of arable land for unnecessary developments that have caused grain production to fall significantly in recent years, state media said yesterday.
"Too many officials have actually been looking on without taking action or have been trying to get by under [false] pretenses," the Ministry of Land and Resources said in a circular, according to the China Daily.
The ministry said local governments should adopt more effective measures to improve the situation.
The order came as the Chinese government recently revealed large amounts of land had been taken away from farmers for real estate development in recent years, severely hurting farmer's interests.
Dwindling farmland has led to a significant drop in grain production since 1999. China's total grain production reached about 430.65 million tonnes last year, down 5.8 percent over 2002, according to figures released this month.
In rural areas, local governments are eager to seize farmers' land, often giving them little compensation, so they can sell the land to developers or develop it themselves in the hope of swelling government coffers. The development projects tend to be a breeding ground for corruption.
It is not uncommon to see developments on former farmland that sit empty or to see vast arable land left idle due to miscalculations about investor interest.
Critics have pointed to the excessive establishment of development zones as a "staggering" waste of arable land, the China Daily said.
According to the ministry, there are a total of 6,015 development zones and industrial parks across the country, taking up an area of 35,400km2.
From July 18 last year, the central government suspended the approval of new development zones. Since then, it has closed down 2,426 such projects and integrated another 294, the report said.
Sun Wensheng, minister of land and resources, said earlier this year that unregulated establishment of development zones must be "resolutely" checked.
Under China's first-ever policy paper released this month on increasing farmers income, the government said it would reform land requisition rules.
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