According to the Agricultural Census in 1996, China has 130.04 million hectares of cultivated land and 35.35 million hectares of land suitable for agricultural uses.

The cultivated land is mainly distributed in the Northeast China, North China and Middle-Lower Yangtze plains, the Pearl River Delta and the Sichuan Basin. The fertile land in the Northeast China Plain is chiefly planted with wheat, corn, sorghum, soybean, jute and ambary hemp, and sugar beet. Farm crops planted in the North China Plain include wheat, corn, millet, sorghum, cotton and peanut. The Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain produces rice, orange and rapeseed, while the Sichuan Basin abounds in rice, rapeseed, sugarcane, orange, grapefruit, tea, etc.

The Statistical Communique on the 2005 National Economic and Social Development released by the National Bureau of Statistics show, the year 2004 saw 139,000 hectares of farmland actually used for construction, down 4.1 percent from the previous year. Some 54,000 hectares of cultivated land were destroyed by disasters. A total of 390,000 hectares of farmland were converted into land for ecological preservation. Structural adjustment in agricultural production led to a reduction of 12,000 hectares of cultivated land. Non-reported use of 73,000 hectares farmland for construction purposes from previous years was revealed. Land reclamation and re-development projects added over 307,000 hectares of cultivated land. As a result, the year saw a net reduction of 362,000 hectares of cultivated land.