Northeast China's black soil protection and utilization receives 500 million yuan in central government support

Protecting Northeast China's black soil and achieving “storing grain in the land”
The central government has allocated 500 million yuan to support the launch of pilot projects for the protection and utilization of black soil in Northeast China

    This website reports  Reporters learned from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance that this year the central government has made a special allocation of 500 million yuan to support 17 major grain-producing counties in Northeast China in launching pilot projects for the protection and utilization of black soil. A few days ago, the Ministry of Agriculture held a meeting in Heilongjiang to advance and implement the Northeast China black soil protection and utilization pilot project, clarifying tasks, assigning responsibilities, and advancing the pilot work.

    The meeting pointed out that carrying out pilot projects for the protection and utilization of black soil in Northeast China is an important task in carrying out actions to protect and improve arable land quality. Northeast China is one of only three major black soil regions in the world. The grain output of the four provinces (regions) of Northeast China accounts for 1/4 of the national total, the commodity volume accounts for 1/4 of the national total, and the volume shipped out accounts for 1/3 of the national total. It is China's most important advantageous grain production region, its largest commodity grain supply base, and the “ballast stone” of national food security. In recent years, due to long-term high-intensity and overloaded use of black soil, while crop yields have increased, it has also brought problems such as black soil loss, declines in arable land fertility and soil microbial activity, as well as soil impoverishment, acidification, salinization and pollution. These have already seriously affected the sustainable development of agriculture in Northeast China and seriously affected China's food security. Strict protection of Northeast China's black soil must be strengthened, grasped early and tightly, and made to produce results.

    The meeting analyzed that the trend of black soil degradation in Northeast China is still continuing. In addition to natural factors, there are also problems such as weak awareness of protection, relatively severe soil erosion from downslope cultivation, unreasonable cropping systems, and relatively poor farmland infrastructure, which must be solved through strong measures. The meeting emphasized that to do a good job in the protection and utilization of Northeast China's black soil, in terms of approach it is necessary to strengthen the concept of green development, insist on ecology first and protection as the priority, and insist on protecting in the course of development and developing in the course of protection, so as to realize the sustainable use of black soil resources; promote the combination of land use and land nurturing, the combination of planting and breeding, and the combination of engineering and agronomy, effectively control black soil degradation, and comprehensively improve black soil quality. It is necessary to adhere to the principles of combining use and nurturing, protecting while utilizing; highlighting key points and adopting comprehensive measures; making overall arrangements and implementing in contiguous areas; and providing policy guidance and encouraging social participation. In terms of path, it is necessary to highlight “control, increase, protect, and nurture”, namely controlling black soil loss, increasing organic matter content, conserving water and fertility, and nurturing black soil. It is necessary to do a good job in four key tasks: utilizing organic fertilizer resources to increase fertility, rotating grain and soybean crops to build fertility, managing gentle slopes to protect fertility, and applying new technologies to save fertilizer, and strive to achieve the “three increases” goals: by 2020, arable land fertility in the project areas should increase by more than 0.5 grades, soil organic matter content should increase by 0.5 percentage points, and the thickness of the cultivated layer should increase by more than 10cm.

    The meeting required that all localities enhance their sense of responsibility and, with a highly responsible spirit and strong measures, solidly carry out the pilot work. It is necessary to mobilize the enthusiasm of the three parties: pilot county governments, farmers in project areas, and agricultural departments providing guidance and services; strengthen the “three implementations”: implementation of responsibilities in place, guidance and services in place, and supervision and inspection in place; give play to the leading role of new types of business entities, the guiding role of technology, and the incentivizing role of policies, so as to do good deeds well and do practical matters practically, and enable the pilot to achieve results.