Three departments stress the need to tighten the "fence" on farmland protection

The Central Rural Work Leading Group Office, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly held a video conference on the 26th on strengthening farmland protection, improving the balance between occupation and compensation of farmland, and regulating rural land transfer, stressing that strengthening farmland protection and regulating rural land transfer are major, important, and difficult matters of long-term significance, and that the “fence” on farmland protection must be tightened to hold the red line of farmland.

Strengthening farmland protection and regulating rural land transfer are matters of overall importance. Chen Xiwen, director of the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, said that it is necessary to earnestly implement the spirit of the important instructions of the central leadership comrades, further unify thinking, raise awareness, strengthen farmland protection, improve the balance between occupation and compensation of farmland, and regulate rural land transfer, so as to provide basic support for safeguarding national food security, promoting the synchronized development of the “four modernizations,” and implementing the “four comprehensives” strategic layout.

⟦NL> Strengthening farmland protection requires not only holding the red line on the quantity of farmland, but also improving the quality of farmland, so as to achieve “storing grain in the land.” Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said that farmland is the most precious resource, and China's inherently inadequate agricultural resource endowment and the pressure on food supply created by feeding an oversized population make the task of protecting farmland even more urgent. Solving the problem of feeding the 1.3 billion people and firmly holding the Chinese people's rice bowl is a matter of the utmost importance. To achieve “basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple food,” it is necessary to solidify the foundation of farmland protection and quality construction.

To implement the strictest farmland protection system in accordance with the law and regulations and without compromise requires comprehensive measures in such areas as improving the system, perfecting mechanisms, and strengthening supervision. Minister of Land and Resources Jiang Daming said that it is necessary to strengthen planning control and use regulation, and resolutely hold the red line of farmland protection. It is necessary to promote economical and intensive land use and strive to reduce the occupation of farmland by newly added construction land. It is necessary to strictly implement the balance between occupation and compensation to ensure that both the quantity and quality of compensated farmland are “in place.” It is necessary to promote land consolidation and focus on strengthening constructive protection of farmland. It is necessary to improve restraint and incentive mechanisms and mobilize the enthusiasm of all sectors of society to strictly protect farmland.

Land consolidation and the construction of high-standard basic farmland are important measures for effectively increasing the quantity of farmland and improving the quality of farmland. Since the “12th Five-Year Plan,” the whole country has increased farmland by 22 million mu through land consolidation and built more than 300 million mu of high-standard basic farmland.

Regulating land transfer and moderate-scale operation is the only way to develop modern agriculture and the basic direction for advancing rural land system reform; deviations or detours must not occur in the work. Han Changfu said that it is necessary to put central policies into practice, not pursue transfer ratios, not assign transfer targets, resolutely avoid the Great Leap Forward, avoid coercion and commandism, avoid blind administrative micromanagement, and strictly prevent industrial and commercial capital from engaging in non-agricultural construction after entering rural land transfer, which would affect farmland protection and grain production.

At present, the area of rural land transfer nationwide has exceeded 30 percent of the total contracted land area, and orderly land transfer and moderate-scale operation have made positive progress.