Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong: Solidly Advance the Delineation of Permanent Basic Farmland
Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong emphasized during supervision in Jiangsu:
Solidly advance the delineation of permanent basic farmland and put the strictest farmland protection system into practice
On December 10, Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong led a joint supervision group of the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture to Jiangsu to supervise the delineation of permanent basic farmland. Yu Xinrong emphasized that delineating permanent basic farmland is a major strategic deployment made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council. All localities must accelerate progress, focus on the long term, and firmly implement it, strictly and orderly delineate permanent basic farmland, and put the strictest farmland protection system into practice with real results.
Yu Xinrong pointed out that farmland is the foundation of agricultural development and the basis for farmers' livelihoods. We must earnestly implement the decisions and deployments of the central government, protect farmland as we protect giant pandas, fully use legal, market, and administrative means, adapt measures to local conditions and timing, continuously create good experience, enrich working methods, and not only better meet the land needs of the present generation but also leave valuable farmland resources for future generations.
Yu Xinrong chaired a symposium in Nanjing, listened to an introduction on the progress of permanent basic farmland delineation in Jiangsu Province, and gave feedback to the provincial government on the supervision group's opinions. Regarding the next step of work, Yu Xinrong emphasized four points. First, we must change development concepts and fully understand the great significance of delineating permanent basic farmland. Delineating permanent basic farmland is not only a need for implementing the “storing grain in the land” strategy and safeguarding national food security, but also an urgent need for promoting the transformation of the economic development model, optimizing the spatial layout of urban development, and advancing ecological civilization construction. Second, we must implement the principle of protection first and accelerate the progress of permanent basic farmland delineation. By the end of next year, the work of securing permanent basic farmland to households and uploading it to maps and databases must be fully completed. High-quality farmland must be designated as basic farmland, and in accordance with the requirement of “designating all that should be designated” in restricted construction zones and prohibited construction zones, the designated area and proportion must be further increased. Third, we must focus on modern agricultural development and truly designate high-quality farmland as permanent basic farmland. In the process of delineating permanent basic farmland, we must ensure both quantity and quality. We must prevent the phenomenon of designating distant land instead of nearby land, and inferior land instead of superior land, and even more so, we must not designate mountainous and hilly land instead of plain farmland. Fourth, we must focus on building long-term mechanisms and promptly study and formulate a system for the protection and use of permanent basic farmland. Delineating permanent basic farmland is only the first step; next, we must also do a good job in the areas of “protection, construction, use, and management.” In the delineation work, we must pay attention to combining it with the work of confirming and issuing certificates for land contractual management rights, and with the formulation and revision of relevant laws and regulations.
⟦NL> Sun Zhonghua, Chief Agronomist of the Ministry of Agriculture, led the supervision group to supervise the permanent basic farmland delineation work in Anhui.