Main reasons are rural depopulation, land abandonment, infrastructure expropriation, urbanization, abandoned water conservancy facilities. Waste emissions, improper use of agricultural pesticides and fertilizers cause soil pollution and soil fertility decline. Grain seed business is foreign-controlled. Agricultural production is increasingly reduced to chemical agriculture. From 2000 to 2008, the total amount of fertilizer used increased by 35%. China is the world’s top pesticide consuming country, with 2,5 to 5-fold higher unit area consumption than the world average. Annually 500,000 tons of plastic sheets remains in the soil, the residual film rate of 40%. There is a great disparity among the provinces on mechanization, with an increase of rental harvesters team” considered not a healthy way of agricultural mechanization, since the machine rests in the hands of a few with bargaining power. The article cites no solutions to these problems.”
China Bio news release, June 14, 2016