BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- China has made remarkable progress in a nationwide rural clean-up campaign, the country's agricultural ministry said.

Around 80 percent of Chinese villages have participated in the ongoing campaign, cleaning up more than 30 million tonnes of household waste and 13 million tonnes of sludge in rural areas, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The country unveiled a guideline late last year to call for a campaign to cleaning up the rural living environment, which has been carried out in various forms.

Yu Xinrong, vice agriculture minister, said more efforts must be made in the campaign as the weather conditions in summer could pose more difficulties.

Yu also urged local authorities to place more emphasis on improving the rural environment and conduct targeted clean-ups to solve the most urgent environmental problems.