Amid food security concerns, China passes first law on farmland protection and improvement

China has passed its first law on farmland protection and improvement amid intensified efforts to ensure its food security as climate change and geopolitical tensions increase global concerns over food supplies.

The law, which will take effect from the beginning of next year, tightens control on the use of China’s arable land – a limited resource relative to the country’s huge population – and seeks to develop new farmland as Beijing places increasing importance on self-sufficiency amid uncertainties in global markets.

The latest legislation on arable land resources, which President Xi Jinping has called the “lifeblood” of food production, came as a potential super El Nino event and regional military conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have put the world on alert for a potential new round of food crises.

Passed by China’s top legislative body on Friday, the farmland protection law marks a major step in Beijing’s multi-year effort to prevent farmland being used for non-agricultural purposes, reclaim wasteland and improve saline-alkali land.

“China’s fundamental condition of a large population and limited farmland remains unchanged,” said Zheng Linyi, a researcher with the China Academy for Rural Development at Zhejiang University. “The problems of converting arable land to non-agricultural uses and away from grain production are still prominent.”

He said China urgently needed stricter legal safeguards to ensure national food security.

The new law stipulates that provincial-level governments must ensure that the total amount of arable land within their administrative regions does not decrease, that its quality is improved and its ecological functions remain stable.