Protecting Farmland Like Protecting Giant Pandas (People's Current Review) Total | Farmland | Current Review

Strictly abide by the red line of cultivated land, coordinate the relationship between development and protection, and achieve "stable total quantity, optimal layout, management of land use, and strict accountability"

Farmland is the lifeblood of food production. Not long ago, the Ministry of Public Security announced 6 typical cases of illegal occupation of farmland, and strictly cracked down on illegal occupation of farmland in accordance with the law; The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Natural Resources jointly reported 5 typical cases of "greenhouse housing" problems, promptly corrected, stopped, and seriously investigated various illegal and irregular occupation of farmland for the construction of non-agricultural facilities. Each region and department fully recognizes the extreme importance of farmland protection, adopts "long teeth" hard measures to protect farmland, "zero tolerance" manages new problems, implements the "strictest farmland protection system" in practice, and comprehensively consolidates the foundation of food security.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has adhered to the strictest system and the strictest rule of law, effectively managing and utilizing every inch of land, and strengthening the protection of the quantity and quality of cultivated land. From curbing the "non agriculturalization" and "non grainification" of arable land, to standardizing and improving the balance of arable land occupation and compensation, and then to fully implementing the shared responsibility of the Party and government, with the joint efforts of all parties, we have maintained the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land, and the momentum of sustained and rapid decline in arable land has been preliminarily curbed. The national arable land area has achieved a net increase for two consecutive years.

Ensuring food security is an eternal issue that cannot be relaxed at any time. China, with 9% of the world's arable land, feeds nearly one-fifth of the world's population. From 400 million people who couldn't eat enough back then to over 1.4 billion people who can eat well today, it effectively answers the question of "who will feed China". However, the basic national situation of China with more people and less land has not changed. In some places, the awareness of land conservation is not strong enough, and illegal and irregular land occupation, as well as the phenomenon of "non agriculturalization" and "non grainification" of farmland, occur from time to time. Various factors that impact the red line of farmland protection are complex and intertwined, and the task of farmland protection is still arduous. Strictly abide by the red line of cultivated land, coordinate the relationship between development and protection, achieve "stable total quantity, optimal layout, management of use, and strict accountability", and promote the "three in one" protection of cultivated land quantity, quality, and ecology.

This year, the No. 1 central document of the Central Committee proposed that "the provincial party committees and governments should strictly assess the responsibility system for farmland protection and food security." To protect farmland, we should strengthen the main responsibility of local governments, improve the land law enforcement and supervision system and mechanism, and resolutely curb land violations. At present, assessment methods related to farmland protection and food security have been introduced, and a "one vote veto" will be implemented for prominent issues such as breaking the red line of farmland protection. As of the end of 2022, the field chief system has been implemented in all 13 major grain producing areas, and a joint responsibility mechanism for farmland protection has been continuously improved, which includes party committee leadership, government responsibility, departmental collaboration, public participation, and linkage between upper and lower levels. While stabilizing the total amount, we also need to optimize the layout. The main production area, main sales area, and production sales balance area should share the same rice bowl and responsibility. Through economic reward and punishment measures, we will urge southern provinces to restore a portion of high-quality farmland that has been lost in the past in a planned, rhythmic, categorized, and regional manner, in order to effectively curb the intensification of the "North South Grain Transport" trend.

Today's arable land is tomorrow's rice bowl. Protecting farmland not only requires maintaining quantity and making every effort to increase reserve resources, but also improving quality to ensure that farmland is of good quality. Measures such as stripping and reusing the cultivated land layer occupied by construction, and carrying out continuous improvement of farmland can achieve the transformation of grain fields into good fields and small fields into large fields. At the same time, we will accelerate the construction of high standard farmland, improve construction standards and quality, and truly achieve high and stable yields through drought and flood protection. Protecting black soil, managing saline alkali land, balancing quantity and quality, strengthening soil improvement, fertility enhancement, and remediation, and carrying out comprehensive management and transformation can truly make 1.8 billion acres of arable land worthy of its name and make every inch of arable land a fertile land for harvest.

Rice comes from grain, and grain comes out of the earth. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the theme of the National Land Day is "saving and intensive land and strictly observing the red line of cultivated land". Only by weaving a dense cultivated land protection network, vigorously promoting the conservation and intensive use of land, reducing the occupation of cultivated land, and leaving more fertile land for agriculture, can we consolidate the foundation of national food security, promote green transformation and development, and secure our Chinese own rice bowls.