Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Kangzhen: Resolutely protect and build every piece of grassland well

This website news  August 26-27, the 2015 China Grassland Forum was held in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia. Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Kangzhen attended and delivered a speech. He emphasized that at the key juncture of summarizing the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” and planning the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”, the vast number of grassland workers must unite their efforts, be brave in innovation, effectively create good grassland policies, resolutely protect and build every piece of grassland well, and push grassland protection and construction to a new level.

Yu Kangzhen pointed out that since the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, under the correct leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, grassland work has closely revolved around the overall situation of the “three pastoral” and the “three lives”, clarifying basic guidelines, improving the policy system, perfecting the legal framework, and implementing institutional measures. Over the past five years, the grassland ecological environment has accelerated its recovery, the development mode of grassland animal husbandry has accelerated its transformation, herdsmen's incomes have grown steadily, and gratifying changes have taken place in the ecology of pastoral areas, pastoral production and the lives of herdsmen. Pastoral areas across the country's grasslands present a thriving scene.

Yu Kangzhen emphasized that the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” is a crucial five years for building ecological civilization and completing the building of a moderately prosperous society, and also five years of tackling tough challenges. It is necessary to follow the central government's strategic decisions and arrangements on ecological civilization construction, and highlight key work. Stabilize and improve the grassland subsidy and reward policy, increase support for the transformation and upgrading of the grass and animal husbandry industry, and ensure the implementation of the grazing ban, rest grazing and grass-livestock balance systems; continue to implement grassland ecological restoration projects, increase efforts in project construction and degraded grassland management, strengthen the construction of animal husbandry infrastructure, and enhance grassland disaster prevention and control capabilities; solidly advance the development of grass and animal husbandry, organize the construction of experimental and pilot areas for grass and animal husbandry, actively cultivate new types of business entities, and lead the brand cultivation and industrial upgrading of grass and animal husbandry; actively and steadily advance the confirmation of grassland contracting rights, explore the establishment and improvement of an information-based and standardized grassland rights confirmation and contracting management model and operating mechanism, advance the reform of the land expropriation system, and improve the reasonable, standardized and diversified safeguard system for herdsmen whose grassland is expropriated; continue to strengthen grassland management according to law, improve laws, regulations and institutional design, strengthen the construction of the grassland supervision system and village-level grassland management teams, and severely crack down on and expose criminal acts that destroy grassland.

This forum took “strengthening grassland protection and building ecological civilization” as its theme. Participating representatives discussed topics including the creation of grassland policies and systems, the transformation and upgrading of modern animal husbandry, the protection of grassland animal and plant resources, and the inheritance of grassland culture. The forum had a warm atmosphere, active exchanges, and achieved fruitful results. Nearly 260 leaders, experts, scholars and enterprise representatives engaged in grassland administrative management, scientific research and teaching, technology promotion, and production and operation from across the country attended the forum.