From Reuters:
About a tenth of China’s vast farmland is polluted, threatening public health and the country’s fragile eco-system, the South China Morning Post said on Wednesday.
About 12 million tonnes of crops had to be destroyed each year because of contamination by heavy metals, the newspaper quoted Zhou Shengxian, director of China’s State Environmental Protection Administration, as saying.
“Local governments seem to know very little about the situation … We have no regulation to protect our farmland, and our investment in this area is inadequate,” Zhou told a national symposium. “The problem is getting worse.” [Full text]
Read a China Daily report on Zhou’s comments. See also a People’s Daily report about the contamination of arable farmland from the overuse of chemical fertilizers.
