China's agriculture drawbacks: too little land, too many tiny plots

Beijing

CHINA'S agricultural landscape can be summed up fairly simply: it has too little arable land, divided into too many tiny plots, tended by too many farmers, who are mostly too old. And much of the soil is contaminated.

Four-fifths of the nation's farmland is divided up into plots of less than 3.3 hectares and most of those are even smaller - less than the size of a football field. These patches of earth are used mainly to grow cereals like rice and wheat on soil that farmers soak with government-subsidised chemicals to boost yields and keep state grain silos full.