Background
It could be said that there is no other country in the world has got the situation and background like China. The resources for the development are so critical and so seriously: great population, nearly 22% of the world total, and short agri land, only 7% of the globe agri land which is a very valuable un-renewable natural resources. In one hand, the agriculture was asked to produce enough food to feed people and the other the strongly inquiry for the development, the sustainable development, and further more: the environment conservation and much other aspect we must to dial with.
It is no doubt that the Key-Link for the Chinese economy sustainable development is agriculture not only for the Chinese politicians, economists, but also for the common people. This point of view, that the development of China is not only concerned with Chinese people but also with the world business, is unnecessary to be discussed for many foreigners. It is very clear that:
- China doesn't like Singapore, Israel, and even Japan. The quantity of population of China, according to the statistic, had reached to 1.2 billion in 1995. Some scientists forecast that number will be about 1.6-1.7 billion in 2030. They are living on the agriculture. They need food, so many foods! No one country could support these necessities.
- The economy development level of China is not very high although it has achieved a very great development. But, in the foreseeable time, it has not got enough hard currency to import food if copy Japan's model.
- The family land renting-production system had deeply changed the agricultural development of China in the past 20 years. The farmers have got enough free right for planting, don't need to follow the planning of the government like before. More and more people to be saved (good or bad?) to migration to the city. It was reported in 1987 that some millions or ten millions was going to the city or town and finding a job and better life. Some new villages are established on the suburbs of the big cities.
Population land and agri. Land
| |
1954 |
1995 |
2030 |
| Total Population(billion) |
o.44 |
1.2 |
1.6 |
| Agri Land(h/per person) |
0.2 |
0.12(wld: 0.32) |
< 0.08 |
Agri Land Decrease
(h/per Year, 1980-1995) |
0.6 million |
|
| Pop. Increase (per Year) |
15 million |
|
Chinese population: 22% of the world total
Agri land: 7% of the globe's
|
From the above table, you can understand that in China, HOW VALUABLE THE AGRI. LAND IT IS!!!
Land use Survey and Agri. Survey
The results of the development are certainly not to be protected: The City Expanding, and the agri-land to be occupied. The critical problems are the agriculture land is very limited, and if it is occupied or changed into the other using model, they could not easily to be recovered into the agriculture production again.
The territory of China is very big, just equal to the US. But the agricultural land is only 1/4 of the world average per person.
According to the report, in the past ten years, since 1985, with the development and urbanization, 600,000 hectares land were occupied each year. Most of them are fertilized agri. land. It is nearly 0.5% each year of total agri. land. There is only less than 0.1h agri land per Chinese person at the present time.
It had still not stopped this trend although the central government established the National Land Management Bureau who's responsibility is to make the land, especially the agri land, survey, and to manage and to plan the land use. So, just a few weeks ago, a VIP of the government strongly asked the relevant organizations and institutes to estimate and monitor the land use and land cover every 24 hours. So big works!
The land degradation, Desert and Gobi, drought, flooding and the other disasters are very severely in China. The total areas of the degradation had reached to 1.53 million square km, 15.9% Total areas. In the past ten years, deserted land is: 2,100 s.km/per year. In future 10 years, it will increase to 2,300 s.km/per year if doesn't take effective actions. The soil erosion areas can't be estimated. You can see how big problems it is on the land use in China, and so does the populations and food production.
The agri-production structure, means the rate of the different type of the crops, the food plants like wheat, corn or rice and the economical plants like cotton, beans. The government must know earlier the production live so that to prepare the food for the people even some of them had moved to the cities. We need a very fast, very effective, and very economical methods to make the land using and land cover survey, and also the crops survey.
We must have to deal with this kind of crisis with remote sensing. The SAR systems, and only SARS is the best one of them, can play a very important role in these kinds of work.
