Final assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Final assignment - Essay Example The amount of arable farmland in China continues to decline sharply even as the region faces yet another problem, which is water shortage (Imura 93). This paper will examine some of the ways China is trying to curb the recent trends, and what it might mean to the future of the region if these techniques do not work. In order to be an economic powerhouse, the country has to have its affairs in order so as to be able to control most of what it imports into the region. The fact that arable farmland is diminishing and water shortages are becoming rife, the region may soon be faced with problems its citizens or government may not be fully equipped to handle. A recent report by the Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Ping, indicates that the severe shortages of the reserve farmlands and water resources present the biggest challenges to ensuring food security for the region. Urbanization that is considered to be rather rapid and natural disasters are said to be among the top reasons why the region is losing cultivatable or arable land, thus; making it a herculean task to save the remaining percentage of land that is still cultivatable (Imura 97). China’s National Bureau of Statistics indicates that China is responsible for 20pc of the globe’s population. However, only 7pc of this has been recorded as cultivatable land. It goes on to claim that; of the over 130 million hectares of arable land that was present in China in 1996, there was only a little over 120 million hectares left by the year 2008. Bank of America has, unfortunately, claimed that China has already bypassed the 120 million hectare mark, meaning that only 115 million will be available by the year 2015. China, at the moment, can only boast of having less than 5 million hectares of land as reserve farmland (Imura 101). Further statistics by an agricultural consultancy firm indicate that there is need to maintain or preserve the remaining 120 million