China is the third largest country in the world, and it has a lot of people. A lot of people need a lot of food. Yet, as China continues its urban expansion, there is a rising concern that the country will be unable to sustain its population agriculturally. Arable lands are the only ones available for agricultural production, yet the availability of arable land decreases as soil pollution and overuse results in tainted foods and lower yields.
To ensure that it can still feed its people, China has set a “red line” of reserve arable lands to guarantee it never falls below 120 million hectares. Under the Land Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China 2004, arable land is strictly protected. If a land is deemed arable, its purpose remains an agricultural one. Article 31 addresses this, explaining that the “State protects cultivated land and strictly restricts conversion of cultivated land to non-cultivated land.” Yet, as arable lands decrease, China looks to remediation, reclamation, and new methods of adapting agriculture to urban growth.
Remediation is a primary method of combating the decrease in arable lands. When soil is polluted, the land is remediated, often by the company responsible for the degradation. For example, it was recently discovered that a textile dye manufacturer in northwest China had been illegally discharging dyed wastewater into the ground for more than ten years. The company was ordered to close its factory, demolish it by the end of the year, and restore the environment after demolition was complete.
Reclamation is another method of increasing arable lands. In one situation, the once depleted mines on the Popeng Mountain were restored to the point they could sustain agricultural pursuits in growing tea. For resource exhausted cities, this is not just the creation of arable land to meet the reserve, but also a new source of work in the tea fields for those who have none.
China also works to adapt agriculture to urban growth, including the use of hydroponic factories. Located entirely within the urban environment, these factories utilize no pesticides, fertilizers, or soil, yet they shield crops from pollutants, droughts, floods, and pests. Crops are ready for harvest in as little as fifteen days, and the factory can produce six times more vegetables than a traditional farm of the same size. Furthermore, these factories have made it possible to grow plants almost anywhere, from regions unsuitable for certain vegetables to the heavily polluted cities. Hopes for this technology include the ability to grow plants underground, in abandoned workshops, the wastelands, desert, and eventually even on the moon and other planets.
China has a lot of people, and those people need food. Whether remediating polluted arable land, creating more through the reclamation of exhausted work sites, or utilizing growing technologies like the hydroponic factory, the odds are China will be able to sustain its people. It will require continued diligence of the law and its enforcement, but agricultural success means not only food for the people, but also work and the potential for international exportation of surplus crops.