Protecting arable land

That the number of cases involving the illegal use of land has been on the increase in the past several years sends the message that a more severe crackdown is urgently needed to deter local leaders from seeking revenue from land development.

Since 2008, the Ministry of Land and Resources has had talks with leaders of regions where arable land has been illegally occupied and administrative disciplinary penalties have been meted out to some leaders.

But despite this, the current administrative disciplinary punishments, such as warnings or demerits, have proved almost futile in checking the rampant land use violations nationwide.

A national forum on the establishment of a common responsibility mechanism for the protection of arable land was held in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province on Thursday, sending the message that Guangzhou's practice will likely be implemented across the country.

The provincial capital launched a new mechanism in 2008, stipulating that local regional leaders would be dismissed from their position immediately if they were found to have occupied arable land without approval from the central government.

South China's Guangdong province, as the pioneer of economic reform and opening-up, has suffered the greatest loss of arable land in the three decades since 1980, and now relies on other provinces for more than 90 percent of the grain it needs to sustain its population of about 100 million.

Little wonder that this province has instigated the most severe crackdown on land violations in the country since 2008.

Very few want to see the nightmare in Guangdong become a reality in the rest of the country, as China's per capita arable land nationwide is only 40 percent of the world average.

Despite the increase in the country's grain output in the last eight consecutive years and the increasing contribution science and technology are making to agricultural production, the hunger of local governments for revenue from land development has always been a threat to the country's agriculture.

The central authorities have reiterated that 120 million hectares of arable land is the red line for the country's food security. But it is not easy to prevent that line from being crossed.

In some northwestern provinces, the consumption of arable land is 6.7 hectares for 100 million yuan ($15.8 million) of gross domestic product, which is twice the rate in Guangdong and five times the area in Zhejiang province as local governments spare no effort in their attempts to catch up with their developed costal counterparts in economic growth.

Hopefully, a more severe crackdown will bring home the importance of arable land protection to local leaders.