China urges local governments to shell out resources to treat soil pollution

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China has urged local authorities to invest more to clean up contaminated agricultural land, with some regions still failing to take responsibility for dangerous levels of soil pollution, the country's agriculture ministry said on Monday.

Soil pollution has emerged as one of China's biggest environmental challenges, with nearly a fifth of the country's farmland exposed to various degrees of contamination by pesticides, mining residues, chemical waste or toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, according to a government survey.