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Pudong expects to reclaim nearly 15,000 hectares of land from the sea over the next eight years.
That is more than a tenth of the district's total area, and much of the new land will
be used for farming. Our reporter Zhang Jun has the story.
This area was wasteland just 10 months ago, but now farmers are ready to start planting
rice here. Over the past five years, nearly 4,000 hectares of land has been reclaimed
from the sea for farming. Developers say the project has helped the city solve several
problems, not just a lack of crop land.
"Our project has more importantly helped the city government meet its quota of construction
land while providing additional food reserves for the city's increasing population," said
Zhang Zhengquan.
Zhang said the city has spent more than 600 million yuan reclaiming and treating land
since 2008. Much of that money was put up by the district government. And the soil had
to be treated because land reclaimed from the sea is too salty for growing crops. He
said his company now employs around 1,000 farmers to work the land.
"I was a farmer five years ago and my yearly income was 30,000 to 40,000 yuan. Now I am
earning about 100,000 yuan at this new farmland every year because of its high output," said
farmer *** Linlong.
Experts say that in addition to reclaimed farmland like this, the city is actually expanding
by more than 6,000 hectares of alluvial land every year at the coasts of Pudong and Chongming
Island. But not all reclaimed land is suitable for farming.
They say that the city must carefully test all reclaimed land to ensure it is suitable
for farming.