Introduction and Background

Approximately 22% of the World’s population lives in China and is fed largely by the efforts of indigenous agricultural production. However, these efforts are concentrated on only 7% of the World’s cultivable land and in China this land is shrinking year-by-year due to soil erosion and urbanization. At the same time, the Chinese population continues to increase, albeit at a slower rate, and it is evident that if China is to maintain her relative self-sufficiency in food then the challenge must be to increase food production from current soil resources. This can only be done by increasing agricultural production from currently cultivable land and/or by bringing more uncultivated land into production, at the same time taking measures to stabilize population growth.