Zhejiang province in East China recently started to designate unused land across the province for conversion into farmland, with the goal of registering at least 60,000 mu (4,000 hectares) of prospective farmland by the end of this year.

Actual land reclamation has already begun, as the province requires 20,000 mu of wasteland to be turned into farmland by the end of 2020, with the remainder to be converted by the end of 2021.

According to local news reports, a 7,800-mu weed wasteland located between Cixi and Yuyao, two Ningbo-administered county-level cities, has been approved to be turned into a 6,200-mu paddy field.

Farmland area per capita in Zhejiang province is a mere 360 square meters, 36 percent of the national average. Due to a lack of farmland reserves, the province is struggling to balance farmland conservation with economic development.

To address this issue, Zhejiang initiated a farmland construction and conservation project in 2018, aiming to add 10 million mu of high-standard farmland by the end of 2022. Part of the project is focused on transforming wastelands into farmland.  

In March, Zhejiang became one of the eight pilot provinces or municipalities to which the State Council has delegated significant authority to examine and approve the conversion of farmland into construction land, which is believed to increase the number of investment projects in Zhejiang province.

According to an official from the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Natural Resources, currently a major limiting factor on sufficient land supply for the development of advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries in Zhejiang is the need to meet the legal requirements on balancing the occupation and supplementation of arable land; reclaiming wasteland for farming is a key move in addressing this issue.