The soil quality of arable land helps to guarantee food safety, and is related to the survival of all households.
Zhangqiu Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, Shandong Province, issued a handbook to explain the Soil Pollution Prevention & Control Law, which is one of the core components of China’s environmental protection legal system.
The handbook explains that the main body of the soil pollution survey is carried out by the local government’s agricultural, rural, forestry and grassland departments in conjunction with the ecological environment and natural resources departments.
The above-mentioned competent departments may carry out soil pollution surveys on their own or entrust other departments to do so.
For heavily polluted cultivated land, the law has clear provisions:
- first, put forward proposals to delineate prohibited production areas for specific production areas, and then implement them following government approval;
- second, carry out collaborative monitoring and evaluation of soil and agricultural products in accordance with the regulations;
- third, provide technical guidance and training for farmers, farmers’ professional cooperatives, and other new agricultural production and operation entities;
- Fourth, other risk control measures, including adjusting the planting structure, returning farmland to forest and grassland, returning farmland to wetlands, crop rotation and fallow, and rotational and rest grazing.
And for mildly and moderately polluted agricultural land:
- First, formulate a safe use plan for safe use agricultural land plots;
- Second, the safe use plan is formulated and implemented by the agricultural, rural, forestry and grassland authorities of the local government;
- Third, formulate a safe utilization plan based on specific conditions such as main crop varieties and planting habits.
