China Subsidizes Crop Rotations, Land Idling

China is expanding subsidies for crop rotations and land-idling to rehabilitate degraded farmland and conserve moisture in marginal agricultural areas. At a press conference last week, a Ministry of Agriculture spokesman explained the program--a continuation of a plan initiated in 2016.

The spokesman explained that intensive use of farmland has degraded the quality of land and resulted in pollution. The exploratory pilot program aims to establish a rotation and fallowing system within 3-to-5 years that will restore fertility and reduce environmental degradation. The 2017 rotation and fallow pilot program covers 12 million mu in 9 province and 192 counties--5.84 million mu more than last year. This year's program will be supported by 2.56 billion yuan in central government funding, nearly twice as much as last year. The funding will be used to compensate farmers for reduced income while land is idle and to cover the cost of officials administering the program.

The farmland rotation-fallowing program is mainly aimed at cutting back excess corn production, but it also relieves stress on severely degraded land in marginal areas, polluted regions, and areas where groundwater is severely depleted.

The Ministry said corn planting was reduced by 30 million mu (2 million hectares) in 2016, and soybean planting rose by 10 million mu (666,667 ha). Corn planting is expected to fall by another 20 million mu (1.33 million ha) this year, alleviating the corn surplus, the Ministry said.

Corn-soybeans are the main rotation promoted by the program, targeted for 1 million mu in Jilin Province and 2.5 million mu in Heilongjiang Province. Rotating corn and soybeans is expected to reduce chemical fertilizer use by 30% (versus continuous corn), the spokesman said.

There are four "auxiliary" rotations promoted in various regions:

• corn with potatoes and other tubers
• seed corn with forage crops (corn for silage, alfalfa, rape for grazing, sweet clover, and rye grass)
• corn and minor grains/beans (millet, sorghum, oats, red beans, drought resistant minor grain and beans)
• corn and oilseeds such as peanuts, sunflowers, peonies for oil

The rotation-idling program also includes three cadmium-contaminated districts of Hunan Province where a 100,000-mu isolation area will be established. Soil will be treated by applying lime, tilling the earth, and/or planting cover crops to absorb pollutants. No food crops can be harvested in the area until contamination is below tolerances.

In regions in Hebei and Heilongjiang Provinces where underground aquifers have been severely depleted, 1 million mu will be idled during the dry season and planted in rain-fed corn, potatoes, and drought-resistant minor grains and beans during the wet season.

In Guizhou and Yunnan Provinces, 40,000 mu of environmentally fragile land will be idled for up to 3 years. In the northwestern Province of Gansu land subject to wind erosion, desertification, and salinization will be idled and measures will be taken to preserve moisture.

The Ministry of Agriculture emphasized that compensation will be paid to ensure that farmers' income will not be reduced from idling or rotating crops that earn lower returns. The compensation for farmers will be 800 yuan per mu for idling land that could bear two crops a year, and 500 yuan for a single-season fallow. Compensation is roughly equal to the rental rate for land, the Ministry spokesman said.

The Ministry encouraged local governments to combine the rotation-fallow pilot with other pilot or demonstration programs that they might be eligible for in order to obtain more aid. Other programs include green high-yielding, high-yielding districts; poverty-alleviation key counties; and agricultural sustainable development demonstration programs.