China's farmland area steady for 3 years

BEIJING - China's total area of arable land has been kept steadily above 1.824 billion mu (121.6 million hectares) for three years straight, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources on Wednesday.

By the end of 2011, China had a total farmland of 1.82476 billion mu, data from MLR showed. During the year, the country had seen previous farmland area shrink by 5.327 million mu, and an increase in new farmland of 4.837 million mu, marking a slight net loss of 490,000 mu.

Analysts believe that the nation's goal of keeping 1.818 billion mu of farmland by the end of 2015 can be guaranteed as the land losses continue to narrow.

To ensure grain security, China set a "red line" demarcating that its arable land never drops below 1.8 billion mu.

The central government has allocated 29 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) to improve the quality of its farmland and boost grain production this year, according to the Ministry of Finance in early December.

Official data showed that China's grain output rose 3.2 percent year-on-year to hit 589.57 million tons in 2012, marking the ninth consecutive year of growth.