BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A National People's Congress (NPC)
deputy has proposed a law on protection of the eco-environment to 
boost agricultural development be made as soon as possible for the
country's sustainable development.
   Equal emphasis should be placed on protecting the eco-
environment and improving agricultural efficiency and increasing 
farmers' income, said NPC deputy Wu Jianhua, who is also director 
of the agricultural department of Fujian Province, east China.
   "Though we already have related laws and regulations such as 
the Environmental Protection Law and Agricultural Law, we still 
need a specific law on protection and agricultural eco-environment
for more effective law enforcement," Wu said in an interview with 
Xinhua.
   He called it a matter of urgency to make such a law and 
stressed that polluted agro-environment and farm produce are 
hampering the China's competitiveness on the international market.
   With the rapid economic growth, China faces the challenges of 
huge pollution, insufficient resources and a deteriorating 
environment. The average per-capita acreage of farmland is only 0.
11 hectares, accounting for less than 45 percent of the world's 
average; a deteriorating ecological system and rampant natural 
calamities are devastating some 40 million hectares of cultivated 
land a year, resulting in a loss of over 20 million tons of grain 
and 220,000 tons of cotton annually.
   Industrial wastes, urban garbage and the wide application of 
farm chemicals and fertilizers contributed greatly to the 
deteriorating environment, said Wu, who is here attending the 
annual NPC session due to close Friday.  Enditem