Rice continues to be the main agricultural crop in the Huangshan region. Urbanisation poses a threat to the land that is devoted to agriculture. China counts 22 per cent of the world's population with only 7 per cent of the arable land. Just in the short period from 1996 to 2004, more than 5 per cent of the total arable land was lost. New construction land was converted mainly from agricultural land. The central government has reinforced its control over the country's arable land setting a minimum farmland area of 120 million hectares (it counts now with 122 million hectares of arable land).
