3,000 Chinese to farm in Kazakhstan
Friday, December 19, 2003
china.scmp.com
REUTERS in Beijing
China, whose enormous population and dearth of farmland have sown fears it will drain world food supplies, plans to send 3,000 farmers to till land in the vast neighbouring Central Asian state of Kazakhstan.
It has signed a deal to lease 7,000 hectares of arable land in the Kazakh county of Alakol for 10 years, starting in spring, the China Daily reported yesterday. It did not say how much would be paid in rent.
The Chinese farmers would grow soya beans and wheat and raise livestock on the land, which had largely been deserted since the 1990s, the report said.
Mainland authorities have sought to allay world fears the country will not be able to feed its 1.3 billion people and will increasingly rely on imported food, draining world supplies.
China and Kazakhstan share a 1,500km border and have stepped up co-operation in recent years on issues including the mainland's crackdown on militant pro-independence Muslim Uygur exiles.
China, which faces soaring energy demand as its economy booms, is also keen to tap Kazakh oil reserves. The state-owned China National Petroleum is the majority shareholder in Kazakhstan's third-biggest oil producer. |
