Officials with the Beijing Water Resources Bureau confirmed Tuesday rice growing will fade out from the capital's agricultural sector by the end of 2007, ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Beijing will transform more than 4,600 hectares of rice-growing areas this year with anti-drought plants, said Yang Jinghuai, vice-director of the bureau's Suburb Department.

In the past two years, the city has terminated more than 10,000 hectares of rice-growing areas from its previous 23,300 hectares in suburban rural areas.

Beijing is one of the most populous regions in China. Its annual water consumption is presently 4 billion cubic metres, more than 50 percent of which is used by the agriculture sector, according to official statistics.

With economic development and continuous drought, Beijing faces a severe water shortage.

Water-efficient agricultural projects have become one of the key points of the Beijing municipal government's agriculture restructuring plan.

Water used by the agricultural sector is expected to decline to only 25 percent of the city's total water consumption in the future, Jia Qinglin, Party secretary of Beijing, said late last year.

Jia said rice, the high water consumption crop, should be withdrawn from the city's agriculture sector within years.

Western suburban areas of Beijing used to be a rice production base for the city, and rice growing areas were enlarged in 1960s.

However, grain production is no longer advantageous in Beijing, both economically and environmentally, according to Zheng Jiaxi, a professor with the Agricultural Economy Department of the Wuhan-based Zhongnan Finance and Economy University.

To achieve sustainable development, farmers should be discouraged from planting crops which require a large amount of water, Zheng said.

Beijing's Haidian District invested 200 million yuan (US$24 million) last year to turn its 1,666 hectares of rice fields into forest and nursery stock.

Economic plants, such as vegetables, fruit and flowers, have gained popularity among farmers.

North China has continuously suffered from droughts in recent years, which made the Ministry of Water Resources intensify its water-saving efforts to prevent wastage, particularly irrigation water.

Farming irrigation consumed more than 70 percent of China's total water supply but only 43 percent of the water - or 5 percent below the world average - was used effectively.

(China Daily January 9, 2002)