If China is serious about food security, it must tackle soil pollution more seriously

Environmental pollution is a central threat to China’s food safety. Yet, state spending on soil treatment has lagged behind that on other bigger campaigns like ending air and water pollution. Private-sector players should step up

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Residents plant trees in an attempt to rejuvenate the soil in Tianying, Anhui province, in 2012. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:21pm, 14 Oct 2020Updated: 10:30pm, 14 Oct 2020

China’s repeated emphasis on food security and its estimated 18 million tonnes of annual food waste has got more than enough attention, but the pollution of the country’s farmland by heavy metals still awaits more scrutiny.

Environmental pollution is a central threat to China’s food safety. According to a report from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, it is estimated that 12 million tonnes of grain are polluted by heavy metals every year. Separately, the Chinese Academy of Science previously found that over 20 per cent of farmland soil samples from the major grain-producing regions failed to meet soil quality standards. Just in the Sichuan Basin, the failed samples accounted for 43.6 per cent.

Soil sampling paints a picture of pollution’s uneven impact across the country. For example, the grain-producing regions in southern China were worse off, with mining, industry and sewage water the main culprits.

While the 12 million tonnes of polluted grain is a drop in the bucket of China’s total 664 million tonnes of output, it comprises the entire grain supply of some communities. And in four out of the five main grain-producing regions, including the Sichuan Basin and the middle Yangtze Plain, the percentage of farmland soil samples that failed to meet quality standards has grown significantly.

To tackle the problem, the government’s main strategy is to prioritise the remediation and control of polluted farmland. In 2019, the authorities issued a stipulation, which clearly stated that the central government’s soil pollution prevention budget should give a high priority to polluted farmland, and provincial governments are accordingly required to increase their budgets for it.

Farm machinery at work in a field in Yonghe village in China’s Hebei province on October 10. According to the Chinese Academy of Engineering, an estimated 12 million tonnes of grain are polluted by heavy metals every year. Photo: Xinhua

Cleaning up China’s polluted farmland will cost around 6 trillion yuan (US$892 billion), by the estimate of Luo Xiwen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. So far, state spending on soil treatment has lagged behind that on other bigger campaigns, like ending air and water pollution.