In 2005, the
total arable land area in China was 122.08 million ha (Ministry
of Land and Resources P.R.C., 2006), and per capita arable land
availability had declined to 0.09 ha, or about two thirds the world
average. Because of the intense relation between increasing population
and finite arable land, a policy to protect China’s arable
lands has been in force since 1996 and is considered the most
restrictive policy of its type in the world (Ding, 2003; Saizen etal., 2006)