Areas of Sino-Indian Cooperation in Agriculture: Problems and Prospects

II
The estimates of cultivated area in the PRC vary. This is not something very piculiar about individual estimates. Even the official estimatessuch as that of Chinese State Land Administration data do not vouch same oveer the period.
Land use change survey 2004 says that China had 122.44 miliion hectares of cultivated land. In comparison to 2003, the cultivated area shrank by 0.77 per cent. In absolute terms, there was reduction of 800,300 hectares. The reasons were reduction were many. Construction works devoured 145,100 hectares while 63,300 hectares were destroyed by natural hazards. Likewise,732900 hectares were turned for ecological preservation purpose and 2o4,700 hectares decreased due to agricultural restructuring. Simultaneously, 345,600 hectares have been added to total stock by reclamation, development and consolidation. There is another study which puts China's cultivated land to be around 113.31 million hectares between 2001-2010. It is estimated to increase slowly to 118. 98 million hectares by 2050.