China releases report on soil quality
中國發布土壤質量報告

China is observing its National Land Day today and to mark it, a national survey on the quality of soil has been released.

The survey covered a total of some 150 million hectares of land nationwide, including 90 million hectares of arable land that’s nearly 70 percent of the country’s total.

It describes the overall soil quality condition as moderately good with over 87 percent of surveyed land showing no sign of any contamination, though there are some worrying findings. For example, the land in the northern regions has been getting increasing salted, as a result of climate change, excessive underground water use and erosion.

On the contrary, in the country’s south, the trend of soil acidification is becoming prominent due to a combination of excessive farming chemicals use and acid rainfall. The survey also found that moderate heavy metal pollution has increased on arable land particularly in the south of the country.