Threats posed by air and water pollution have often overshadowed the nation's contaminated farmland, but now the government has made the first moves to tackle a hidden killer. Zheng Jinran reports.

China has widened the scope of its anti-pollution efforts to include soil pollution for the first time.

A specific plan of action for the prevention and control of soil pollution will come into force during the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), and the nation's first specific national law on the control and prevention of soil pollution is being drafted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.