China Strives to Develop Water-saving Irrigation

China will take the work of promoting water-saving irrigation as a strategic target. The actual irrigated area shall be increased from the current 800 million mu to 870 million mu by 2015 under nowadays water utilization level while a more 60 billion kilograms of grain should be yielded by then, according to a conference held in Beijing.

By year 2015, the area of water-saving irrigation will be amounted to 600 million and a quantity of 60 billion cubic meters water will be saved, said Zhou Wenzhi, vice-minister of Ministry of Water Resources.

China, a big country in irrigation, has been suffering from serious shortage of water. In terms of total production nationwide, 75 percent of grain, 80 percent of cotton and 90 percent of vegetables are produced on the irrigating areas representing 40 percent of the arable land across the country. Efforts to promote water-saving irrigation must be strengthened to meet the demand of social and economic development.

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