Continuously improving seed and cultivated land varieties | seed industry | cultivated land

We must seize the two key points of seeds and farmland, strengthen the matching of good seeds and farmland, and build a higher level "Tianfu granary" in the new era. This has pointed out the direction and provided guidance for us to further strengthen the foundation of national food security.

Externally, the growth rate of global grain production has slowed down, geopolitical risks such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict have brought huge uncertainty to global food security, and the risk of international grain prices being controlled by international grain traders has increased significantly. Internally, in recent years, there has been an increase in extreme weather in China. Since entering the main flood season, many areas have experienced heavy rainfall, typhoons, etc., which have had a certain impact on agricultural production. It can be said that both stabilizing the food supply chain and agricultural disaster prevention and reduction rely more on high-quality seeds and fields, and also put forward higher requirements.

To comprehensively consolidate the foundation of national food security, the key is to store grain in the land, store grain in technology, and the key is seeds and cultivated land. In recent years, the central government has elevated seed source security to a strategic height related to national security, targeting the self-reliance and controllability of seed industry technology, deploying and promoting seed industry revitalization actions, consolidating the responsibility for protecting farmland, strictly regulating the balance of farmland occupation and compensation, and introducing a series of "long teeth" hard measures.

In terms of seeds, positive progress has been made in the revitalization of the seed industry. We have launched a national survey of agricultural germplasm resources, protected a number of rare and endangered resources, discovered a number of local livestock and poultry varieties, and significantly improved our strategic and safe resource preservation capabilities; Promote innovation and research in the seed industry, implement a new round of national breeding joint research and genetic improvement plans for livestock and poultry, and achieve breakthroughs in some key technologies and major varieties; Improved the layout of national seed industry bases, and increased the supply guarantee capacity to 75%; We have established a substantial derivative variety system and increased the protection of intellectual property rights in the seed industry; 270 advantageous enterprises were selected from over 30000 seed enterprises, and efforts were focused on cultivating a national seed industry enterprise formation.

In terms of farmland, the hard measures of "growing teeth" are gradually taking effect. In terms of quantity, the trend of continuous and rapid decline in arable land has been preliminarily curbed. In 2022, the national arable land area reached 1.914 billion mu, an increase of about 1.3 million mu from the end of last year. In terms of quality, as of the end of 2022, 1 billion acres of high standard farmland have been built, and approximately 36.63 million acres of new high standard farmland have been built in the first half of this year, with a focus on addressing shortcomings such as soil improvement and farmland irrigation and drainage. At the beginning of this year, the central government has issued assessment methods for farmland protection and food security, and the overall institutional framework for assessment work has been basically established. In terms of law enforcement, the number of land violations discovered in the first half of this year decreased by 64% year-on-year, and the area decreased by 80.5% year-on-year.

Although there have been many achievements in the field of seeds and farmland in the past two years, it cannot be lightly said that the problem of seeds and farmland has passed. We cannot rest assured yet. It should be noted that the overall situation of seed industry development remains severe. The comprehensive competitiveness of seed industry enterprises is not strong enough, and there is a significant gap between domestic seed industry research and development capabilities and those of foreign countries. Some seeds still heavily rely on foreign imports. It should be noted that the situation of insufficient total arable land, overall low quality, and insufficient reserve resources in China has not fundamentally changed. In the context of industrialization and urbanization, the task of curbing the "non agriculturalization" of arable land and preventing the "non grainification" is still arduous.

Whether the variety is good or not, whether the cultivated land is good or not, and the performance in the field. In the future, on the one hand, we must continue to make long-term contributions and continuous efforts in the seed industry and farmland, accelerate the renewal and iteration of high-quality varieties, make up our minds to promote the national seed industry, accelerate the improvement of the quantity and quality of farmland, and gradually turn all permanent basic farmland into high standard farmland; On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the matching of high-quality seeds and fields, lay a foundation for high-quality fields, follow up on high-quality varieties, and leverage the multiplier effect of factor inputs to enable farmers to produce food with the best seeds on the best state of farmland. In fact, the process of matching high-quality seeds and fields is not only a process of introducing modern production factors for small farmers, but also a long-term historical process. To meet the requirements of building an agricultural power, we must continue to do a good job in seed and arable land development.