China's Ministry of Land and Resources announced
Friday that 230 million yuan (about US$28.75 million) went to compensating
farmers for land losses in 2005.
Compensation and allocation to rural farmers was improved last year, with
their interests better protected, a ministry statement said.
The Chinese government called in February for improvements to the
compensation mechanism for rural farmers whose land was purchased and stricter
protection of farmers' interests.
The policy document also demanded better vocational training opportunities
for farmers to widen and broaden their prospects, and enrolling them in the
social security system.
Illegal land occupancy has increasingly become a grave problem affecting
rural and social stability. Premier Wen Jiabao has warned that "historical
problems should never be repeated on the land issue".
A ministry statement noted that many provinces, such as Hunan Province in
central-south China, had worked out ratification mechanisms for farmland
disputes.
Provinces like Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in east China had improved the
social security system for local farmer peasants with more than 3 million
enrolled.
Though China's strategic drive to build a new socialist countryside will
increase infrastructure development in rural areas, the central government has
sought to restrict land acquisitions.
Officials with the ministry said the reform of the land acquisition system
would be accelerated this year, and the government would go on implementing a
rigid land protection system.