耕地土壤監測體系(gēngdì tǔrǎng jiāncè tǐxì): Arable land and soil monitoring system

The Ministry of Agriculture has set up a center to monitor and protect the country's arable land.

The center, which was launched on Tuesday, will establish a nationwide network to monitor the quality of arable land and treat degradation and pollution, according to Zeng Yande, an official at the ministry.

It will also create a nationwide arable land quality data platform and a national arable land soil supervision system.

The move came amid efforts to ensure food security as climate change and pollutants are reducing the amount of arable land available and reducing the land's capacity to produce food.

The black soil in northeastern provinces is degrading, farmland in some northwestern regions is plagued by salinization and some places in southern provinces are suffering from heavy metal contamination, Zeng said.

China's total arable land was 135 million hectares at the end of 2015. The government has set a baseline of 124 million hectares. And statistics show that China's chemical fertilizer usage increased from 10.86 million tons in 1979 to 59.12 million tons in 2013, while from 2012 to 2014, the annual usage of pesticides was about 31,100 tons.