This Day, That Year: June 25

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On June 25, 1991, China celebrated its first Land Day to raise public awareness about the importance of land resources, as seen in an item from China Daily.

Fast economic development, urbanization and industrialization over recent decades have seen a rapid loss of farmland.

Authorities have made rigorous efforts to protect the country's arable land and shore up its food security.

In 1994, the Basic Farmland Protection Regulation was passed, which requires the designation of basic farmland protection districts at the township level and prohibits any conversion of land in those districts to other uses.

In 1999, the Land Administration Law was implemented.

Last year, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a document to hold provincial governments and officials accountable for farmland protection.

According to the first policy document of the year released by the central government in February, efforts will be made to ensure that grain planting areas remain stable at 110 million hectares and the arable land area will be kept at a level above 120 million hectares.

In January, the country's first national law on soil pollution and control came into force, defining responsibilities for pollution and establishing a special fund for the costs of remediation.

If those who have polluted the soil cannot be identified, those who currently have the right to use the land will be responsible, and if there is a dispute, local governments will be empowered to allocate responsibility, according to the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law.

The latest data on soil pollution were released in 2014, based on a survey jointly conducted by the country's environmental and land watchdogs.

It was found that 16 percent of the randomly selected spots surveyed within an area of 6.3 million square kilometers were polluted.