China's arable land under threat

Despite such safeguards and a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy for illegal land occupation — among other measures to prevent the ‘non-agriculturalization’ of arable land and the ‘non-food cultivation’ of basic farmland³ — illegal occupation of arable land persists. In 2021 and 2022, inspections by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources uncovered 112 cases of illegal occupation of arable land, including unauthorized sand extraction, the illegal conversion of permanent basic farmland for aquaculture ponds, and the dumping of silt and gravel on arable land, all of which led to the degradation of soil conditions for cultivation⁴. These cases revealed weak enforcement and oversight by local governments and departmental leaders, whose lack of awareness or negligence facilitated illegal farmland occupation. Worse still, some local governments and departments have actively facilitated illegal farmland occupation for projects such as lake excavation, landscaping and afforestation. In Handan, Hebei Province, the Water Resources Bureau unlawfully occupied 330 ha, including 294 ha of permanent basic farmland, to construct a scenic park and greenbelt⁵. Similarly, the Xiangzhou District government in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, illegally used 107 ha of farmland, including 22.6 ha of permanent basic farmland, for afforestation⁵.

Illegal occupation of arable land remains prevalent in rural China, with 76,173 ha being used for illegal purposes by the end of 2019, more than 10% of which involved basic farmland⁶. Urban expansion and economic growth are key drivers of farmland loss, as the profits from selling land or building houses on arable land often far exceed the returns from agricultural production, perpetuating illegal land use.