Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times
Soil Pollution Plagues Chinese Countryside
By EDWARD WONG
Anxiety is growing in China about contaminated soil in the country’s
agricultural centers and the potential effects on the food chain.
China Uncovers Poor State of its Soil
Pollution and other effects of urbanization and industrialization continue to take a toll on China's stock of farmland, the government said in a report Monday that provided fresh insight into one of its least understood environmental challenges.
Figures released by the Ministry of Land and Resources on Monday in Beijing indicated as much as 2.5% of China's soil could be too contaminated by heavy metals and other pollutants to farm. Meanwhile, the share of China's land that is arable fell by a fifth of a percent during the three years ended in 2009 due to pollution, urbanization and other reasons, the figures show.
In its report, the first on land conditions made public since 1996, the ministry described the trends as worrisome and said the nation's land situation remains 'grim.' It said China's stock of arable land has fallen in recent years and is less than half the world average per capita, for instance.
Wang Shiyuan, deputy minister of the Land bureau, told the press conference on Monday that China's Communist Party leadership determined fundamental risks remain after being presented recently with soil survey findings.
The Politburo decided, he said, 'We must follow the strictest land protection and land improvement procedures' to stabilize the nation's arable land.
The report left a number of questions about China's soil unanswered. Mr. Wang said the data came from surveys begun in 2006 and that the study was completed in 2009. It also wasn't clear whether the report and data disclosed on Monday fulfill a pledge by the Land Ministry in June to conduct a soil survey. Ministry officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
Chen Nengchang, a soil remediation expert with the Guangdong Institute of Environmental and Soil Sciences, described the release of previously secret information as a 'big step.'
But he said the data don't give much indication of how much land is at risk from mild levels of contamination that could also harm crops. Nor does the release provide a ground-level understanding of problems in specific places.
Contaminated land in China has gotten less domestic and international attention than the country's air and water pollution, which are tracked in ways that increasingly give the public an idea of what is happening. The land problem stems from similar industrialization trends, with ramifications for food quality and farmer health. In May, government tests showed the presence of cadmium, a heavy metal, in some rice supplies in southern Guangdong province.
The problem also strikes close to the leadership's concern that China is poorly positioned to satisfy the rapidly expanding appetites of roughly 20% of the global population with only about 10% of the world's arable land.
China's government itself drew unwanted attention to the issue of polluted land earlier this year when its environmental watchdogs declined to release soil surveys. At one point, bureaucrats described the data as state secrets, prompting widespread consternation from environmentalists and even China's government-run media.
Mr. Wang said medium to heavy pollution rendered unfit for farming some 50 million mu (8.24 million acres). He didn't elaborate and the accompanying report didn't provide a comparable figure, but cited pollutants in the country's major rivers and encroachment of major cities as key causes. A mu is a Chinese measure of area about one-sixth the size of an acre.
The pollution figure equals about 2.5% of China's 2.027 billion mu in total arable land in 2012, according to a calculation by The Wall Street Journal. The total arable land figure, down about 0.2% from 2.031 billion mu in 2009, was also a newly released by the ministry on Monday.
Almost a quarter of China's arable land is located in areas considered poor for farming, such as hillsides, the bureau said.
The government considers a minimum 1.8 billion mu of farmable land a 'red line' for food security. Mr. Wang said the party leaders reiterated the importance of protecting the baseline by ensuring 'the amount of arable land is stabilized.'
China's Communist Party leadership devoted chunks of the plenum policy plan released in November to issues related to rural land, including a pledge to 'shape new types of industry-agriculture and urban-rural relationships.' In recent years, China's land shortage has helped drive facets of its foreign policy, from state-supported purchases of farmland and agro-business groups around the world to its appetite for foreign agricultural commodities like U.S. corn.
James T. Areddy
政府數據顯示污染導致中國耕地大量減少
Reuters
根據政府發佈的報告，中國2.5%的土地可能受到重金屬和其它污染物的嚴重污染而無法耕種。上圖為遼寧，一名農婦正在收購莊稼。照片拍攝於2008年。
中
國政府在週一發佈的一份報告中稱，污染以及城鎮化和工業化帶來的其它影響繼續讓中國耕地面積大量流失。這份報告令外界對中國在環境問題上面臨的最不為人瞭解的種種挑戰有了一個新的認識。從中國國土資源部週一在北京公佈的數據可以得知，中國2.5%的土地可能受到重金屬和其它污染物的嚴重污染而無法種植。與此同時數據還顯示，受污染、城鎮化和其他因素影響，截至2009年的三年中，中國的耕地面積減少了0.2%。
這是1996年以來政府首次公佈土地狀況。國土資源部在報告中稱這種趨勢令人擔憂，並稱耕地保護形勢仍十分嚴峻。報告顯示，近年來國內耕地面積減少，目前不到全球人均耕地面積的一半。
國土資源部副部長王世元週一在新聞發佈上表示，中共領導層近期在看到土地調查數據後，認為基本風險依然存在。
王世元稱，中央政治局決定，必須堅持最嚴格的耕地保護制度和最嚴格的節約用地制度，必須堅守耕地紅線和糧食底線，確保實有耕地數量基本穩定。
這份報告仍未就某些中國土壤問題給出答案。王世元稱，報告的數據來自於2006年開始的調查，相關研究結束於2009年。目前尚不清楚週一公佈的報告和數據是否兌現了國土資源部6月份時進行土壤調查的承諾。該部門官員並沒有回應記者的置評請求。
廣東省生態環境與土壤研究所(Guangdong Institute of Environmental and Soil Sciences)的土壤修復專家陳能場稱，這些原先保密的信息得到公佈是邁出的“重大一步”。
但他也表示，這些數據無法讓我們得知有多少土地受輕微污染威脅（這種污染可能影響農作物），也無法就特定地區出現的種種問題給出具體解釋。
與空氣和水污染相比，中國的土地污染問題得到的國內外關注較少。由於空氣和水污染問題得到多方面報導，公眾對於相關問題的瞭解越來越多。土地污染的原因同樣出自工業化，污染會對糧食質量和農民健康造成影響。今年5月政府檢測顯示，廣東南部市場上出售一些大米含有重金屬鎘。
土地問題也牽涉到中國政府領導層的擔憂：中國的耕地面積僅佔世界總面積的約10%，但中國卻要養活全球大約20%的人口，且人口規模還在膨脹，因此中國所處的形勢並不樂觀。
中國政府今年早些時候因土地污染問題招致關注。原因是中國環保機構不予公佈土地調查結果，甚至稱這些數據屬於國家機密。這樣的說法令環保人士甚至官方媒體錯愕不已。
王世元表示，中重度污染耕地大體在5,000萬畝（824萬英畝）左右。他沒有就此做詳細說明，報告也沒有提供可供比較的數字，但稱國內主要河流內的污染物以及主要城鎮佔地是主要原因。一畝相當於大約六分之一英畝。
根據《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)的計算，上述污染面積相當於2012年中國耕地總面積20.27億畝的2.5%左右。耕地總面積也是國土資源部週一新公佈的數據，較2009年的20.31億畝減少了大約0.2%。
國土資源部稱，國內將近四分之一的耕地位於被看作是不適宜耕地的區域，例如山坡地帶。
為了維護糧食安全，政府設置了最低18億畝的耕地面積“紅線”。王世元稱，領導層重申，必須堅守耕地紅線和糧食底線，保持實有耕地數量基本穩定。
在 11月份公佈的第十八屆三中全會政策規劃中，大部分內容和農村土地相關，其中包括承諾“健全新型工農城鄉關係”。近年來，土地短缺已成為影響中國對外政策 的一個因素。無論是政府支持的海外耕地購買、海外農業企業集團投資，還是進口美國玉米等外國農產品，無不反映了土地短缺的影響。
James T. Areddy
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