• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.869-883
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• 2019

China is currently facing great challenges in protecting its arable soil from contamination by heavy metals, especially Cd in paddy soil. China enacted the first soil environmental quality standards (SEQS) for ten pollutants in 1995, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the results of the first nationwide soil survey in 2014. The soil survey showed that as much as 16% of China's soil and 19% of the agricultural soils were contaminated mainly with heavy metals and metalloids beyond the environmental quality limits. The exceeded rate of the contaminant limits in food crops was widespread in China, and the most severe regions were East and Southwest China. Heavy metals and metalloids accounted for 82.4% of the contaminants in soils while organic pollutants accounted for 17% of the contaminants in the soil. Among the heavy metals and metalloids exceeding the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) limit, cadmium (Cd) was highest at 7.0%, followed by nickel (4.8%), arsenic (2.7%), cobalt (2.1%), mercury (1.6%) and lead (1.5%). However, all the average concentrations of the pollutants were lower than the recommended values for the contaminants except for Cd for three levels of pH (< 6.5, 6.5 - 7.5, and > 7.5). According to the Action Plan on Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution released by the State Council in 2016, 90% of contaminated farmland will be made safe by 2020 with an increase to 95% by 2030. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the soil quality to meet the environmental quality standard for soils and heavy metal standards for food safety.