Around 10 million hectares of China's arable land, or more than a tenth of the country's total cultivated land, have been polluted by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, plastic films or dirty water, said China's top environment watchdog.

According to an incomplete survey of the State Environmental Protection Administration, most of the polluted arable land is located in the country's economically developed areas.

The polluted land threatens the country's ecology, biodiversity, food safety and the sustained development of agriculture, the administration said.

The deteriorating soil conditions have also affected the normal growth of crops and caused falling output and declining quality of farm produce, it said.

Source: Xinhua