	economic spotlight china must preserve farmland if we go on using up farmland as we have done since there will be none left in years to grow  on xu jinfeng a middle aged official in fengbang village on the edge of shanghai sums up the dilemma china faces as it tries to feed its more than one billion people and at the same time let them get richer by building factories and new homes china has to feed one quarter of the world s population but only one seventh of its land is arable sharp increases in farm output since turned china into a net  exporter for the first time in and again in but the rapid industrialisation of the countryside which has occurred at the same time has gobbled up arable land for factories and homes for peasants who can now afford them official figures show that china lost just under one pct of its arable land to other uses in and a slightly smaller amount last year it gained mln new mouths to feed during the two years we lost very little land prior to when the industrialisation began official xu said since then nearly all the families in the county have built new homes and many factories have gone up last year we lost land to a new railway line xu said but land losses in future should fall because nearly all families already have new houses she added the issue of land loss is a matter of major concern to the peking leadership which announced earlier this month that china will issue nationwide quotas for conversion of  land for the first time this year the present situation of abusing occupying unlawfully wasting and destroying land and land resources is serious said an article in the official press explaining the new measures it has resulted in great losses of cultivated farmland it said china has a large population and its land resources are badly deficient an official of the shanghai city government said county authorities could approve conversion of only hectares of arable land to other uses while anything more than that must be approved by the city government the peking government faces another major obstacle in its efforts to ensure china s people get enough  to eat the prices the state pays to farmers for  are too low making it more profitable for them to grow other crops to offset this the state offers farmers cheap fertiliser and diesel oil and payment in advance for  it contracts to buy the state then sells the  at subsidised prices to china s mln city residents rural factories also subsidise  output paying farmers bonuses to grow it some officials argue that the simplest solution to the problem would be for the state to raise city  prices chen zuyuan communist party secretary of a village in the eastern province of zhejiang said the government listened too much to the demands of selfish city people and could raise city  prices without any problem but the government has ruled out a price rise raising the price of  would directly conflict with the goal of social stability said a china daily editorial this month the shanghai official said prices must be reformed over the long term we must be very careful we have a very large population which is used to price stability and will object to price rises he said the problem is how to do it the shanghai official said a rise in  prices might also affect the prices of hundreds of food products made with  and consumed by city residents in addition the state faces the problem of inadequate investment by farmers in land and in  in particular the official press has reported that farmers fear farm policy may change and they are putting their new wealth into building graves memorial halls for ancestors and homes under reforms introduced in the late s farmers sign contracts with the state requiring them to grow certain crops but they have considerable freedom in how to use their land as the expiration date of the year contract is almost at the halfway mark farmers are beginning to worry about the future the china daily said in an editorial last month their anxieties stem from the fact that they are allowed to use the land but not own it for most of the period of communist rule the land was organised into collectives where there was little room for individual initiative new measures are needed to reassure them of the consistency of government policies and make them interested in long term investment the newspaper said reuter 
