BEIJING, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A United Nations expert says China's ability to feed its population is uncertain as its amount of arable land diminishes amid increased urbanization.
United Nations envoy Olivier De Schutter says the country's capability of feeding one-fifth the world's population will become more precarious because of land degradation, urbanization and an over-reliance on fossil fuels and fertilizers, Britain's The Guardian reported Thursday.
"The shrinking of arable land and the massive land degradation threatens the ability of the country to maintain current levels of agricultural production, while the widening gap between rural and urban is an important challenge to the right to food of the Chinese population," De Schutter said as he completed a trip to China.
The main concern, he said, was the decline of soil quality in China because of excessive use of fertilizers, pollution and drought, leading to 37 percent of the nation's territory being degraded.
And 20.7 million acres of arable land has been lost since 1997 to spreading cities and to natural disasters, he said.
With climate change expected to increase price volatility and cut agricultural productivity by 5 to 10 percent by 2030, it was essential for China to move away from fossil-fuel intensive farming methods and adopt more sustainable agricultural techniques, De Schutter said.
