BEIJING - The total area of China's farmland dropped slightly last year, but remains well above a government red line, official data said on Thursday.

China's total area of arable land stood at 2 billion mu (around 135 million hectares) at the end of 2015, down by 990,000 mu from a year ago, but still well above the official lower limit of 1.8 billion mu, said the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR).

In 2015, around 4.5 million mu of arable land was lost to construction, disasters, environmental protection and agricultural restructuring, while 3.5 million mu of new farmland was opened up, the MLR said.