China will set quotas later this monthto cut the amount of farmland converted to non-agricultural
uses, the China Daily said.
    The quotas will restrict the conversion of farmland to
farmers' housing or construction by state departments and
collective institutions and enterprises.
    The newspaper quoted Wang Xianjin, general director of the
State Land Administration, as saying the 1987 quota would be
below the 320,000 hectares lost in 1985. Land loss and
population growth have cut cultivated land per person to
one-tenth of a hectare, half the amount of the early 1950s.
 REUTER
