Measures for Assessing the Implementation of the Provincial Governor Responsibility System for Food Security Issued by the General Office of the State Council

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 12 (Report) -- In order to thoroughly implement the national food security strategy under the new circumstances, fully implement the primary responsibility of local governments for food security, and effectively safeguard national food security, in accordance with the Several Opinions of the State Council on Establishing and Improving the Provincial Governor Responsibility System for Food Security, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the Measures for Assessing the Implementation of the Provincial Governor Responsibility System for Food Security.

Food security is an important foundation for achieving economic development, social stability and national security. Against the backdrop of increasingly tightening resource and environmental constraints in our country, rigid growth in food demand over a certain period, and the long-term state of tight balance in food supply and demand, establishing and improving the provincial governor responsibility system for food security is an inevitable choice for safeguarding national food security. After the Several Opinions of the State Council on Establishing and Improving the Provincial Governor Responsibility System for Food Security was issued and implemented, the important task at present and for some time to come is to establish and gradually improve the assessment mechanism, and to put into practice the primary responsibility borne by the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) for comprehensively strengthening the building of local capacity for food production, reserves and circulation.

The Assessment Measures clarify the purpose, targets, organization, steps and principles of assessing the provincial governor responsibility system for food security, and set out clear provisions on specific matters such as supervision and inspection, assessment content, scoring methods, implementation steps, use of results and work requirements. The State Council assesses the implementation of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security by the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). The main content of the assessment is: first, ensuring that the area of cultivated land remains basically stable and its quality does not decline, that food production develops steadily, and that the capacity for sustainable food production is continuously enhanced. Second, protecting the enthusiasm for growing grain, ensuring a reasonable increase in fiscal input to support food production and circulation, raising the comparative returns from growing grain, implementing the grain purchase policy, and preventing difficulties in selling grain. Third, implementing local grain reserves, enhancing grain storage capacity, strengthening supervision and management, and ensuring that the quantity of local reserves is genuine and their quality is safe. Fourth, improving the grain regulation and supervision system, ensuring the basic stability of grain market supply and prices, preventing shortages and gaps in supply, and maintaining order in the grain market; improving the grain emergency support system, promptly handling emergencies, and ensuring emergency grain supply. Fifth, strengthening pollution prevention and control of cultivated land, improving the capacity for inspecting and monitoring grain quality and safety and for handling grain that exceeds standards, and prohibiting grain that does not meet food safety standards from entering the market for staple foods. Sixth, in accordance with the requirements for safeguarding food security, implementing the duties and tasks of agriculture, grain and other relevant administrative departments, and ensuring that responsibilities and personnel are in place.

The Assessment Measures make clear that the assessment of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security should adhere to the combination of unified coordination and division of responsibilities, the combination of comprehensive supervision and assessment of key points, and the combination of quantitative evaluation and qualitative assessment. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Administration of Grain, together with relevant departments and units, form an assessment working group that both divides responsibilities and works closely together to jointly organize and implement the assessment work well. After the assessment results are examined and approved by the State Council, the assessment working group shall notify the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). Where serious impacts are caused by failure to perform duties, major work errors and the like, the responsible persons shall be held accountable in accordance with law and discipline.

The Assessment Measures require that the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) shall, in accordance with these Measures and in light of their respective actual conditions, formulate before December 31, 2015, their local assessment measures for implementing the provincial governor responsibility system for food security, so as to ensure that food security responsibilities are put into practice.
 

The full text is as follows:

Measures for Assessing the Implementation of the Provincial Governor Responsibility System for Food Security

Article 1 In order to thoroughly implement the national food security strategy under the new circumstances, these Measures are formulated in accordance with the Several Opinions of the State Council on Establishing and Improving the Provincial Governor Responsibility System for Food Security (Guo Fa [2014] No. 69) and other relevant provisions.

Article 2 The State Council conducts an annual assessment of the implementation of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security by the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Administration of Grain, together with the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Water Resources, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the State Food and Drug Administration, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Agricultural Development Bank of China and other departments and units, form an assessment working group responsible for specific implementation. The office of the assessment working group is located in the State Administration of Grain and undertakes the routine work of assessment.

Article 3 The assessment work adheres to the principles of combining unified coordination with division of responsibilities, combining comprehensive supervision with assessment of key points, and combining quantitative evaluation with qualitative assessment.

Article 4 Relevant departments of the State Council, according to the division of duties, conduct supervision and inspection of the implementation of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security by the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in conjunction with routine work. The inspection results serve as important content of the annual assessment and are incorporated into the assessment scoring system.

Article 5 The assessment content includes six aspects: enhancing the capacity for sustainable food production, protecting the enthusiasm for growing grain, enhancing local grain reserve capacity, ensuring grain market supply, ensuring grain quality and safety, and implementing safeguard measures, which shall be specifically carried out by the respective lead departments. (See the annex for details.)

Article 6 The assessment adopts a scoring system, with a full score of 100 points. The assessment results are divided into four grades: excellent, good, pass and fail. A score of 90 points or above is excellent, 75 points or above but below 90 is good, 60 points or above but below 75 is pass, and below 60 is fail. (The above figures include the stated number; the below figures do not include the stated number.)

Article 7 Each lead department shall, together with the cooperating departments and units, formulate a detailed assessment plan in light of the key tasks of the year, and after review and consolidation by the assessment working group, issue it before March 31 of each year.

Article 8 The assessment follows these steps:

(1) Self-inspection and self-scoring. The people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), in accordance with these Measures and the detailed assessment plan, conduct a comprehensive summary and self-assessment scoring of the implementation of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security in the previous year, form a written report, and submit it before April 30 of each year to the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Administration of Grain, with copies sent to the other member units of the assessment working group.

(2) Departmental review. Each lead department, together with the cooperating departments and units, in accordance with the detailed assessment plan and in light of routine supervision and inspection, conducts assessment and review of the implementation of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security by the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in the previous year and the relevant content of the self-assessment reports, forms written opinions and sends them to the office of the assessment working group.

(3) Organized spot checks. The assessment working group, based on the self-assessment reports of the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and the written opinions of each lead department, determines the provinces to be spot-checked, forms joint spot-check teams, conducts on-site assessment of the spot-checked provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), and forms spot-check assessment reports.

(4) Comprehensive evaluation. The office of the assessment working group consolidates the departmental review and spot-check situations, reports them to the assessment working group for a comprehensive evaluation, determines the assessment grade, and reports them to the State Council for examination and approval before June 30 of each year.

Article 9 After the assessment results are examined and approved by the State Council, the assessment working group shall notify the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), and shall submit them to the competent department for central cadre management as an important reference for the comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the principal leaders and leadership teams of the people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).

The people's governments of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) whose assessment results are excellent shall be commended, and relevant departments shall give them priority consideration in the arrangement of funds for related projects and in special support policies for grain. The people's governments of provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) whose assessment results are fail shall, within one month after the notification of the assessment results, make a written report to the State Council, proposing rectification measures and a time limit, and at the same time send copies to all member units of the assessment working group; if rectification is not completed within the time limit, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Administration of Grain shall hold talks with the relevant responsible persons of the people's government of that province (autonomous region or municipality), and when necessary, the responsible leaders of the State Council shall hold talks with the principal responsible persons of the people's government of that province (autonomous region or municipality). Where failure to perform duties, major work errors and the like cause serious impacts on the grain market and social stability, the annual assessment shall be fail, and the responsible persons shall be held accountable in accordance with law and discipline.

Article 10 The assessment work shall be fair, just and realistic. Where there is fraud, concealment or false reporting in the assessment work, criticism shall be circulated and the responsible persons shall be held accountable in accordance with law and discipline.

The people's governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) shall, in accordance with these Measures and in light of their respective actual conditions, formulate their local assessment measures for implementing the provincial governor responsibility system for food security, and report them before December 31, 2015, to the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Administration of Grain for the record.

Article 11 These Measures shall be interpreted by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Administration of Grain, and shall take effect from the date of issuance.