To ensure more than a billion people have enough and nutritious food is our top priority in agricultural and rural development at present and for a long time to come. To have enough and nutritious food, we shall focus on two vital points:"seed" and "arable land", and be clear that our fundamental way is scientific and technological innovation in agriculture.
There are two important means to achieve the goal of food security: one is to maintain the relative stability of arable land area, and the other is to improve soil quality. China is facing the situation of small area per capita of arable land, small area of high-quality arable land and rare available arable land reserve. In recent years, most of the arable land reduced in China is good-quality land in the eastern region, and most of the increased arable land is in the central region, the northeast region and the western region, such as reclaimed grassland and transition areas between cropland and grassland. The growing urbanization and industrialization have made it more and more difficult to ensure the area of farmland remains above the red line of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares). According to research, 1,245 mu of construction land is needed to achieve 100 million yuan of GDP, and 100 square meters of construction land and 10 square meters of green land are needed for every city dweller added. In that sense, it will be fairly difficult to retain the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land, because urbanization and industrialization have increased land occupation while we still need to develop industrialization and urbanization and expand GDP.
The key is to stabilize the arable land area and improve the quality of arable land. The construction of high-standard farmland is a crucial measure to improve the quality of arable land, consolidate and improve grain productivity and ensure national food security. Importance should be attached to scientific and technological innovation and breakthroughs for "seven pieces of land", including chernozem soils in northeast China, dry land in north China, paddy field in south China, dry land in south China, saline-alkali land, land for protected agriculture and reserved farmland.
We shall improve the policy framework which gives priority to the development of agricultural science and technology. The report of the 19th National Congress stressed that priority should be given to the development of agriculture and rural areas and scientific and technological innovation is the key to agricultural and rural development. The overall strength of agricultural science and technology in China has been greatly improved, but there is still a big gap compared with developed countries, particularly in basic research and original innovation. The suggestion is to give priority to streamlining institutions and mechanisms for agricultural scientific research, increasing investment in agricultural science and technology, making plans for basic research in agricultural science and technology, and supporting agriculture-related enterprises to improve their R&D and application capabilities.
We shall use new technologies and new means to strengthen oversight of arable land, particularly high-standard farmland. The space-air-ground integration technology for arable land and the intelligent monitoring technology for high standard farmland enable quick finding-out of the problems such as cropland used for any purpose other than agriculture or grain production, unauthorized damage, occupation or change of use of farmland. High-standard farmland should be well built and well managed so that good farmland is used for grain production.
We shall optimize the arrangement for arable land use and construct the space pattern of "six areas and eleven belts" for agricultural production. In the six areas including the northeast area, Huanghuai area, the area in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the southern area, the northwest area and the marine and ocean area, we will develop eleven belts of agricultural products that are important to the economy and people’s lives, including rice, wheat, corn, soybean, cotton, oil plants, sugar crop, natural rubber, meat, milk and aquatic products, in a bid to build up advantages of supplying national important agricultural products and consolidate core production capacity of national important agricultural products. The current pattern of diverting grain from the North to the South has put great pressure on arable land, the ecology and water resources. In the long run, we need to make such a pattern more rational so as to ensure both food security and ecological security.
Issued on March 3, 2022