Beijing, May 5 (Inditop.com) Over 8,500 plots of land, measuring more than 38,000 hectares, were “misused” in China in 2009, a government report has said.

A survey of 24 provinces said that in 2009, 8,514 plots of land were involved in illegal use. The total area in these plots comes to 38,600 hectares of land, of which 13,000 hectares were farmland, Global Times reported Tuesday citing the report by the ministry of land and resources.

According to the statistics, the land supply all over China in 2009 reached 319,000 hectares. The misused land made up almost 10 percent of the total land supply.

The report said by January 2010, the government had given out 149 million yuan ($21.8 million) in compensation for use of the farmland.

A total of 1,323 people involved in the cases received punishment and 365 people were directed to judicial authorities.