CHINA-INTERNAL: AGRICULTURE
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In a despatch on May 27, 2015, Xinhua reported that China's Ministry of Agriculture had published a guideline the previous day on achieving "zero discharge" of agricultural waste by 2030. The guideline also set targets on agricultural science and mechanization. In contrast to the declared policy that the redline for farmland is 1.8 billion mu (or 120 million hectares), the new guideline stated that China must guarantee to maintain the basic farmland at a level of no less than 1.56 billion mu (about 104 million hectares) by 2020. This appears to be the new redline.
The guideline also said that annual water consumption for irrigation should not exceed 372 billion cubic meters, while the utilization rate of irrigation water should rise to 55 percent from the current 50 percent level. (One cubic meter of water only produces a kilogram of grain harvested in China, lower than the average of 1.2-1.4 kilograms in advanced countries; a huge waste of water.) The guideline also asked farmers to reduce use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by limiting waste and switching to organic alternatives.
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