Published on: 2026-08-26
Source: People’s Republic of China — Translation
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Beijing, August 26 /Xinhua/ — The draft law on the protection and improvement of arable land quality was submitted for consideration in the third reading at the 24th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) – the country’s highest legislative body.
Compared to the previous edition, the current draft has been supplemented with provisions relating to personnel support, funding, and compensation mechanisms taking into account public feedback.
In particular, the project calls on universities and research institutes to strengthen the training of specialists in the field of protection and improvement of arable land quality, and also prohibits any organization or private individual from withholding, appropriating, or misusing funds allocated for the development of arable lands meeting high standards.
The document emphasizes the need to improve compensation mechanisms for the main grain-producing regions, optimize the system of budget transfers for them, and create a reliable transregional compensation mechanism between grain-producing and grain-consuming regions.
As part of strengthening the protection of chernozems, the bill provides for measures to prevent the reduction of their total area and functional degradation, as well as to ensure qualitative improvement and sustainable production potential of soils.
Moreover, the document states that, taking into account flood control needs, lands located in the lake-river management zone should generally not be used as a source of additional arable land. Provisions are also made for the comprehensive restoration of arable lands affected by desertification, wind, and water erosion.
The protection of arable lands remains a priority task for China due to their exceptional importance in ensuring food security. The country is making active efforts to maintain the total area of arable lands at no less than 1.8 billion mu (approximately 120 million hectares), which is considered the ‘red line’. -0-
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