China's legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), on Saturday voted for a law on farm produce quality safety, nailing down a series of measures to ensure farm produce safety.

The law will go into effect on Nov. 1.

An official with the Legislative Affairs Commission under the NPC Standing Committee said on Saturday that the environment at the production areas of farm products always influences the quality of farm products.

In recent years, agricultural product safety incidents take place due to the air, soil or water pollution at the product growing areas.

Therefore, the law forbids to discharge sewage, waste gas and solid waste or other poisonous substances to the agricultural product production areas.

The law also prohibits to produce and collect farm products at the places where poisonous and harmful substances exceed statutory standards.

The law regulates the use of fertilizer, pesticides, veterinary medicine, feed and feed additives, and requires to establish production records for agricultural products.

On April 28, one day prior to the law adoption, a case of water pollution occurred in Sanchajiang River of Wuchuan City in south China's Guangdong Province, posing a threat to the safety of drinking water for nearly 40,000 locals.

Fish were found dead in large quantity at eight ponds of a fish fry farm at Lingtou Village in Changqi Township, said the farm owner, surnamed Pan. He estimated the loss at more than 200,000 yuan (25,000 U.S. dollars).

Preliminary investigation show that the pollutants were illegally discharged by an enterprise at the river's upstream, according to the Wuchuan city environmental protection bureau.

Source: Xinhua