China will improve 200,000 square kilometers of land suffering from soil erosion in upcoming five years, said sources with the Ministry of Water Resources.

The proportion of soil erosion land in the country's total territory will drop from present 36 percent to 34 percent in the period.

Following the land improvement scheme, farmers will have more arable land, said E Jingping, vice minister of water resources.

Statistics with the ministry show that during the past five years, China improved 540,000 sq km of soil erosion fields.

Currently, 3.56 million sq km of land in China suffer from soil erosion and 1.74 million sq km of land experience desertification, government statistics show.

(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2006)