Report typical cases of inadequate performance in the field of farmland protection in multiple regions, and strictly adhere to the red line of farmland protection

In August 2023, the Qinghai Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision reported 6 typical cases of inadequate performance in the field of farmland protection; In July 2023, the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, reported three cases of dereliction of responsibility, inaction, and disorderly behavior in farmland protection work; In April 2023, the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision reported 7 typical cases of "non agriculturalization" of cultivated land and "non grainification" of basic farmland... Recently, disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies in various regions have exposed the issue by name, releasing a strong signal of using iron discipline to protect cultivated land and ensure food security.

Farmland is the lifeblood of food production.The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes the comprehensive implementation of the Party and government's shared responsibility for food security, and firmly guarding the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land.

What are the main problems with the current "non agriculturalization" of arable land and the "non grainification" of permanent basic farmland? How to strengthen political supervision around the protection of arable land, which is the top priority of the country? How to thoroughly investigate the responsibility, corruption, and work style issues behind the chaos of farmland protection? The reporter interviewed comrades from the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervision Commission stationed at the Ministry of Natural Resources and relevant local discipline inspection and supervision commissions.

The national situation of having more people and less land in our country has not changed, and the problem of "non grainification" and "non agriculturalization" of arable land remains prominent

Food security is the cornerstone of a country, and arable land is the lifeblood of food production. In recent years, a series of strict policies and measures for farmland protection have been introduced, but there are still some places that illegally occupy farmland for non-agricultural construction.

The Notice on Resolutely Stopping the Non agriculturalization of Farmland issued by the State Council in September 2020 stipulates that it is strictly prohibited to illegally occupy farmland for greening and afforestation, to strictly prohibit the construction of green channels beyond the standard, to strictly prohibit the illegal occupation of farmland for digging lakes for landscaping, to strictly prohibit the occupation of permanent basic farmland for expanding natural conservation land, and to strictly prohibit the illegal occupation of farmland for non-agricultural construction. In November 2020, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Preventing the Non Grain Transformation of Farmland and Stabilizing Grain Production", which prohibits the occupation of permanent basic farmland for forestry and fruit industry, as well as behaviors such as digging ponds for fish farming and illegal soil extraction that damage the cultivation layer. It also prohibits the idle and wasteful use of permanent basic farmland.

The responsible person of the disciplinary inspection and supervision team stationed at the Ministry of Natural Resources told reporters that the main problem of "non agriculturalization" and "non grainification" of cultivated land over the years has been concentrated in the occupation of cultivated land, such as the construction of green channels beyond the standard. For example, the green belt on both sides of a provincial road in a certain province is 60 meters wide, far exceeding the national standard of 3-5 meters, and the green belt occupies nearly 1800 acres of cultivated land; The adjustment of agricultural structure has led to an imbalance in planting structure, and the policy guidance for planting structure adjustment is insufficient, resulting in some regions being driven by economic interests to plant economic crops on farmland.

The responsible comrade introduced that the 112 major violations and violations discovered by the Ministry of Natural Resources during the 2021 and 2022 cultivated land protection inspections have all reflected the weak awareness of cultivated land protection among local government and competent department leaders, leading to the occurrence of illegal occupation of cultivated land due to inadequate enforcement and supervision responsibilities.

From the reports of disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies, it can be seen that cases of "non agriculturalization" of cultivated land and "non grainification" of permanent basic farmland not only involve illegal occupation of cultivated land by public officials and infringement of farmers' interests, but also problems of dereliction of duty and responsibility by regulatory personnel, as well as lax and untrue implementation of the farmland protection system. Especially in some rural areas, the widespread and frequent occupation of arable land for building houses is related to the inadequate supervision and lax law enforcement by grassroots cadres, and even their indifference. Hebei and other regions have issued notices proposing that after the partial delegation of law enforcement power in the field of natural resources, if townships and streets fail to fulfill their duties of inspection, stopping, and punishment seriously, do not act, act recklessly, or neglect their duties, the main party and government leaders and related personnel of townships and streets shall be held accountable in accordance with the law and regulations.

In July 2023, the second meeting of the Central Committee of Finance and Economics pointed out that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has implemented a series of hard measures to maintain the red line of arable land and initially curb the continuous decline in the total amount of arable land. At the same time, it is important to be aware that China's national situation of having more people and less land has not changed, and the problem of "non grain" and "non agriculturalization" of arable land remains prominent. The foundation for maintaining the red line of arable land is not yet stable, and there is still a lot of debt in the field of agricultural water conservancy. On the new era and new journey, the task of protecting arable land has not been reduced, but has become even more arduous.

Disciplinary inspection and supervision organs at all levels must fully play their functional roles, strengthen political supervision, carry out daily supervision, urge local party committees, governments, and functional departments to conscientiously fulfill their duties, and seriously investigate and deal with problems such as inadequate supervision, dereliction of duty, inaction, disorderly behavior, and slow behavior in the protection of arable land. They must thoroughly investigate the corruption issues behind illegal and irregular occupation of arable land, such as seeking personal gain through power, exchanging interests, accepting bribes, and competing for benefits with the people, and promote the implementation of decisions and deployments on arable land protection with a rigorous work style.

Strengthen political supervision, organize and carry out special supervision on farmland protection, tighten and compact responsibilities, and make every effort to maintain the red line of farmland

In February 2023, the disciplinary inspection and supervision team stationed at the Ministry of Natural Resources received 66 clues related to violations of discipline and law on cultivated land submitted by relevant departments and bureaus of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and transferred the problem clues to the Party Conduct and Political Conduct Supervision Office of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervision Commission. The office centrally supervises and assigns clues to problems, and relevant local disciplinary and supervisory commissions conduct in-depth investigations and verifications to thoroughly investigate and deal with the responsibility, corruption, and work style issues behind the chaos of cultivated land, effectively strengthening the deterrence of punishment.

As the main responsible department for farmland protection, the implementation of the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments on farmland protection by the Party Group and relevant departments and bureaus of the Ministry of Natural Resources is a key focus of supervision. The disciplinary inspection and supervision team stationed at the Ministry of Natural Resources supervises the Ministry of Natural Resources to establish a work ledger based on its functional responsibilities and key tasks, which not only supervises the implementation of the cancellation of account numbers, but also supervises the effectiveness of rectification, and strictly prevents low awareness, unclear responsibilities, empty slogans, and false rectification.

In order to fully leverage the characteristics of natural resources administrative supervision and the political advantages of intra party supervision, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed in the Ministry of Natural Resources, together with the Party Group of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Party Group of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, jointly issued the "List of Coordination Mechanisms for the Integration of Natural Resources Administrative Supervision and Discipline Inspection and Supervision", which clarifies the coordination mechanisms in four aspects: information communication, lead transfer, measure cooperation, and result sharing. The Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed in the Ministry of Natural Resources and the relevant departments and bureaus stationed in the Ministry of Natural Resources shall establish regular contacts to ensure smooth transmission of important information, and require the sharing of inspection opinions, inspection suggestion letters, and case reports, and other information, and carry out the transfer of disciplinary and illegal clues.

Focus on special supervision of farmland protection. Anhui is a major grain producing province, a major grain circulation province, and a major province in terms of net grain outflow. The Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has made "strengthening farmland protection and maintaining food security" a key task in promoting the standardization, precision, and normalization of political supervision in 2023, and has formulated and implemented the "Special Supervision Work Plan for Strengthening Farmland Protection and Maintaining Food Security". The Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has clearly defined the main responsibilities of the Party Committee and the government, followed up and supervised the rectification of eight prominent issues of illegal approval, transfer, occupation, and destruction of arable land discovered by special inspections since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Through comprehensive measures such as handling problems, implementing daily supervision, strictly enforcing discipline and accountability, and promoting the establishment of regulations, the special supervision work has achieved results.

Since October 2022, the Guizhou Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has formulated a work plan, integrated the strength of departments and teams, and selected relevant personnel from the Provincial Department of Natural Resources to form 5 special supervision and inspection teams to carry out supervision and inspection on 9 cities, prefectures, and their natural resource management departments. The supervision and inspection team has clearly focused on four key aspects: the deployment of work arrangements in various regions, the completion of annual supplementary farmland tasks, the occurrence and rectification of newly added and illegally occupied farmland construction problems, and the implementation of rectification feedback from previous farmland protection inspections. They have adopted various methods such as discussions and exchanges, individual interviews, data review, on-site verification, and proactive interviews to carry out supervision and promote the implementation of hard measures for farmland protection throughout the province.

Strengthen supervision through a combination of big data and a big platform. The Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Luojiang District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, fully utilizes the "office group land" linkage mechanism to organize disciplinary inspection and supervision cadres to conduct on-site visits to the front line, verify the implementation of rectification measures for illegal occupation of arable land, urge relevant functional departments to fully perform their duties, prevent local management from "going through the motions", timely conduct talks and reminders for cadres with "lazy politics", and timely dig and investigate relevant problem clues. The Chengkou County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision in Chongqing focuses on a responsibility grid for farmland protection, a map of health issues, a "balance of entry and exit" account, and a batch of administrative approval powers, with precise supervision of hierarchical classification and dispatching; Strengthen digital supervision through online supervision, OnePoint Supervision, and livelihood fund supervision platforms.

Responsibility for compaction and compaction. The Fujian Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision has listed the special rectification of rural illegal occupation of arable land for building houses as an important part of political and daily supervision. Leaders of the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision led a team to visit the Department of Natural Resources, transmitting pressure face-to-face to the "top leaders" and supervising their performance point-to-point. The Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Jiangshan City, Zhejiang Province have included the rectification of "non agriculturalization" of cultivated land and "non grainification" of permanent basic farmland in the annual political supervision project database. Through questioning the "top leaders" to check the level of importance, investigating the strength of supervision and inspection work, and daily supervision and inspection work progress, the "three inspection" methods have been improved, including "work reminders+reminders and interviews", "production and development suggestions+accountability", "supervision reports+quality and efficiency evaluation", to force the implementation of main responsibilities.

Thoroughly investigate the responsibility, corruption, and work style issues behind the chaos of farmland protection

Not long ago, a natural resources inspection agency discovered an illegal land occupation case: the local government illegally occupied farmland under the pretext of dredging river channels, but in fact built landscape gardens, involving hundreds of acres of farmland. After the inspection agency pointed out its illegal issues in 2021, the local government not only failed to fulfill the main responsibility for rectification, but also continued to "build illegally against the wind." In 2022, when the inspection agency conducted another on-site inspection, the main project was completed, and it was not until the Ministry of Natural Resources notified and media tracked and reported that the local government began to promote rectification. At present, the local discipline inspection and supervision commission is conducting a thorough investigation into the corruption issues behind the chaos of farmland protection.

In February 2023, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued the "Opinions on Carrying out Special Rectification of Unhealthy and Corrupt Practices in the Field of Rural Revitalization", focusing on resolutely punishing corruption and work style issues in the implementation of strategic measures such as farmland protection, strengthening organizational leadership, and carefully arranging and deploying. Send letters to the disciplinary and supervisory commissions of various provinces, proposing clear requirements for strengthening the supervision of farmland protection, urging disciplinary inspection and supervision organs at all levels to supervise and promote relevant functional departments and local governments to strengthen supervision, increase rectification efforts, and thoroughly investigate the responsibility, corruption, and work style issues behind the chaos of farmland protection.

In rural areas, illegal activities such as occupying farmland and building houses occur from time to time. Some grassroots cadres neglect their management or are hindered by "worldly wisdom", and their law enforcement inspections on related issues are not in place, resulting in the occupation of permanent basic farmland. It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive "physical examination" of farmland protection, taking this as an opportunity to conduct a thorough investigation and "look back" on the clues of illegal and irregular occupation of farmland; Strictly implement the mechanism of investigating both parties involved and regulators, and hold relevant responsible persons accountable.

Recently, the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Jiading District, Shanghai received a report from the public that villagers in a village in Xuxing Town had encroached on permanent basic farmland during the renovation of rural houses, but the relevant village officials did nothing. The District Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, in conjunction with the Town Party Committee and Commission for Discipline Inspection, conducted an investigation and found that the rural houses in the area were not only built without approval, but the newly built walls were also expanded compared to the past, taking over a portion of the permanent basic farmland. Faced with the investigation, the village party branch secretary and relevant officials involved admitted that they did not take decisive measures to strongly dissuade when the signs were discovered, resulting in the construction of rural houses without approval and the occupation of permanent basic farmland. In the end, the secretary of the village party branch and the relevant cadres involved were respectively warned and reminded through conversation, and the relevant personnel involved were also dealt with seriously. At present, the illegally constructed parts of agricultural houses that have encroached on permanent basic farmland have been demolished and reclaimed as arable land.

According to the analysis of relevant officials from the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed at the Ministry of Natural Resources, some local government leaders have a deviation in their performance view of prioritizing economic development, neglecting farmland protection, and food security. In some cases, the illegal and irregular occupation of farmland is led by the decision-making of the main responsible person of the local government, and they must adopt a "zero tolerance" attitude and take "long teeth" hard measures to enforce discipline and accountability.

In August 2022, Luo, a businessman from a community in a certain county, Sichuan Province, implemented projects such as slope cutting and road hardening on the collective land of the community through land transfer. Part of the land occupied by the construction was permanent basic farmland. Li, the secretary of the community party branch and director of the residents committee, was aware of this situation, but due to his belief that the project was beneficial to local development, he did not verify its compliance and legality, nor did he report or stop it in a timely manner. In June of this year, the issue of Luo's occupation of permanent basic farmland for non agriculturalization was discovered by natural resource inspectors. The County Natural Resources and Planning Bureau has launched an investigation into Luo's illegal occupation of land, ordering him to stop his illegal activities and requiring him to rectify and restore the relevant farmland. Li failed to fulfill his duties as required and caused adverse effects, and was given a warning within the party.

According to the analysis of relevant officials from the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group stationed at the Ministry of Natural Resources, although the illegal and irregular issues in farmland protection are obvious, they are highly professional and policy oriented, and the illegal and irregular points are often hidden and easily covered up by some seemingly legal and compliant procedures. It is necessary to use land related laws, regulations and policies to carefully identify and analyze each link, and search for illegal and irregular points.

In September 2022, the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Jiahe County, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, conducted a review of the local rural housing construction approval process during the investigation and handling of the lax approval process for 7 households of villagers in Tanping Town who applied for housing construction.

According to regulations, the villagers shall submit an application for building a house, which shall be reviewed and publicly announced by the village group and village committee before being submitted to the township government; The township government organizes joint audits of natural resources and planning stations to review and control the nature of land, whether it occupies arable land, and whether it complies with national spatial planning; After the joint review is passed, the township government holds a meeting for approval. After the meeting is approved and approved by the responsible town leaders and town mayor, the "Rural Planning Permit" and "Construction Land Approval Letter" are issued to the applying villagers; If the land used for building a house occupies arable land, it is necessary to apply to the provincial and municipal natural resources departments to handle the procedures for converting agricultural land. Only after the procedures are successfully completed can the application for building a house be processed.

The investigation found that during the joint review of villagers' housing applications by the relevant stations of the Tanping Town government, Li Xiaobing, the then director of the Tanping Town Natural Resources Bureau, and Liu Wenbing, the director of the Planning Station, signed and agreed to the "Jiahe County Farmers' Housing Full Process Management Form" for 7 households without applying for the conversion of agricultural land to construction land, resulting in the illegal occupation of 2.3 acres of basic farmland for housing construction.

To give full play to the fundamental function of investigating and handling cases, the Dalian Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision adheres to a problem oriented approach, deeply analyzes the shortcomings and loopholes exposed in the investigated cases, and promotes the establishment of regulations and systems in functional departments through the formulation and issuance of disciplinary inspection and supervision suggestions; Using typical cases to carry out warning education and strengthen deterrence; Integrate relevant laws and regulations on farmland protection into the content of the "Sending Disciplines and Laws to Grassroots" activity, and enhance the awareness of grassroots cadres and the public about the importance of farmland protection.