[originaltext] ALAKMED by the non-stop reduction in the amount of total arabl

ALAKMED by the non-stop reduction in the amount of total arable land, the ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture have jointly issued a notice to protect basic farmland.
   The notice issued last week requires the governments at different levels, especially those at county and village levels, to include the farmland as stipulated by the regulations in their respective basic arable-land protection zones.
   The arable land along highways and railroads, and on the outskirts of the cities, villages and townships should all be taken into account in the establishment of basic farmland protection zones, according to the notice.
   Cases of illegally occupying and destroying farmland will be strictly checked and the responsible persons and units should be punished severely, the notice said.
   China has had a legal system to protect its basic farmland since 1994, according to Tang Mingcai, director of the Farmland Protection Department of the Ministry of Land and Resoures.
   The land administrations are in charge of protecting the quantity of basic farmland, while the agricultural administrations are responsible for conserving the quality.
   The newly revised State Land Administration Law and the National Regulations on protecting the Basic Farmland, which took effect earlier this year, have pat 80 percent of the country’s farmland under strict protection.
   The national overall plan on land use says the country’s basic arable land under protection amounts to 108,562 million hectares in total area.
   Nearly 397,000 hectares of the farmland have been lost to economic expansion and severe natural disasters in the past two years, according to statistics from the Ministry of Land and Resources.
   In 1998, 261,300 hectares of farmland were lost because of floods.
   The grass-roots governments are largely responsible for approving farmland for other use, thus reducing the amount of land available for growing crops, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.