At least 124.33 million hectares of arable land is to be retained by 2020

China will invest 600 billion yuan ($87.5 billion) in the next four years to enhance farmland protection and improve farmland facilities, an official said on Tuesday, as the country is set to encourage more private capital to participate in the farmland improvement process.

Han Jun, deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Rural Work, said a national effort to increase the area of well-facilitated farmland from the current 26.7 million hectares to 53.3 million hectares by 2020 could cost about 600 billion yuan, and authorities will encourage private capital to take part in the process. The group is China's top rural affairs decision-making agency.

The target for high-quality farmland development was laid out in a document released by the central government on Monday, which stipulates that efforts must be made to stabilize the amount of farmland and improve its quality to ensure grain self-sufficiency and food security.

Han told a news conference that the country will also establish a system to evaluate the quality of farmland and its productivity, and conduct regular evaluations as part of the farmland protection effort.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Land and Resources, well-facilitated farmland refers to a large, level tracts of arable land with fertile soil and sound facilities that can resist a certain degree of adverse natural conditions.

The central government document said that the country aims to retain at least 124.33 million hectares of arable land by 2020, with no less than 103.1 million hectares of permanent farmland. China had 133.3 million hectares of arable land at the end of 2015.

This level must not be breached, and the use of arable land for construction will be strictly controlled, the document noted, adding that arable land should be protected "the way we protect pandas".

For farmland faced with problems of degradation, authorities will launch projects to improve the quality of soil through engineering and biochemical measures, the document said, adding that efforts will also be made to prevent the threat of pollution to farmland.

More than 40 percent of China's arable land suffers from degradation, Xinhua News Agency reported in 2014. The rich black soil in Heilongjiang province is thinning, while farmland in China's south is suffering from acidification, the report said.

Jiang Daming, minister of land and resources, said at the news conference that the urbanization and industrialization drive is set to take up more farmland in the near future.

"The country is now also faced with huge grain stocks. But we need to keep a clear mind and cannot afford any sloppiness in the protection of farmland," he said.

Huang Hanquan, director of the National Development and Reform Commission's Research Institute of Industrial Economy and Technical Economy, said well-facilitated farmland is instrumental to the country's food security, due to its growing population and increasing demand for high-quality agricultural products.

However, he said that authorities should roll out more concrete measures to ensure a reasonable return for private investors if they are to attract them.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn