(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-26 17:27

CHANGCHUN -- With the transformation of large swathes of salina land into paddy fields over the next four years, Jilin Province is expected to increase its rice output by one-third.

Zhao Shengtang, Land and Resources Bureau director with the northeast China province, said 6.2 billion yuan (US$840 million) will be invested between 2008 and 2011 to transform 270,000 hectares of salina land that was not previously suitable for crop planting into paddy fields.

He added the project would be carried out through the diversion of water from the Nenjiang River. It would also use underground sources and water from a hydropower project reservoir.

Salina land is defined as an area of land encrusted with salt. With treatment, it can be made arable.

To help ensure grain output, China has been trying every means to increase its arable land over the past decade as rapid industrialization and urbanization had devoured large areas.

By 2006, the country's arable land area shrank by eight million hectares, or six percent, to 121 million hectares compared with 130 million hectares in 1996.

The central government said last year the country needed a minimum of 120 million hectares of arable land to grow enough grain to feed the country.

"China faces great challenges to keep its agrarian land area above the alarming line, given its industrialization and urbanization continues to go ahead," said Zou Yuchuan, China Land Science Society president.

"In addition to stressing more efficient land use, China should also find means to increase its agrarian land. Salina land near lakes, rivers and eastern coastal regions is an important alternative."

He cited an example of a successful transformation of 6,600 hectares in eastern Shandong Province. The formerly barren salina area had been transformed into fertile and high-yield land for crops such as cotton.

"If most of the salina land is successfully transformed, there will be an increase of 2 million hectares of arable land in our country," he estimated.

China has also been striving to increase arable land through comprehensive treatment measures of current land resources. This includes the transformation of low-yield crop fields and reclamation of abandoned agrarian land.

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