China says cultivated land lost in 5 yrs two times size of Belgium.

From: Kyodo News International (Tokyo, Japan) | Date: March 11, 2006 | Copyright information

Mar. 11--BEIJING -- China said Saturday the size of the country's cultivated land lost during the past five years totaled about 61,603 square kilometers, roughly twice the size of Belgium.

At the end of 2005, the country's cultivated land totaled about 1.22 million square kilometers, Vice Land and Resources Minister Li Yuan said at a press conference.

While the biggest reason for the loss in cultivated land was to ecological changes including desertification, ...

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