Sustainable agricultural development requires equal emphasis on protection and governance

“Protection” and “Governance” Go Hand in Hand, Firmly Pursuing the Path of Sustainable Agricultural Development
——Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu Answers Reporters' Questions on the National Plan for Sustainable Agricultural Development (2015-2030)

This website reports  Agriculture bears on national food security, resource security and ecological security, and "sustainable" is a "hot word" at a time when China's economic development has entered a new normal and comprehensive reform has entered deep waters. The National Plan for Sustainable Agricultural Development (2015-2030) has been officially released amid much anticipation. What is the background and great significance of the release of this Plan, which is called a "programmatic document"? What profound changes will it bring to China's agricultural development? What kind of path will China's agriculture take? A reporter interviewed Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu on these matters.

Reporter: At the current stage of economic and social development, what is the background for issuing such a Plan?

Han Changfu: In recent years, China has implemented a series of policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers and enrich rural areas. Agricultural development has made tremendous achievements, grain production has achieved a historic "eleven consecutive increases," and the construction of modern agriculture has made new progress. However, China's agricultural development also faces enormous challenges: constraints on land and water resources are tightening day by day, agricultural non-point source pollution is worsening, agro-ecosystems are clearly degrading, and institutional mechanisms such as land and water resource management and ecological compensation are still incomplete. The traditional model of agricultural development is already difficult to sustain, and advancing sustainable agricultural development is extremely urgent. At present, the people have higher expectations for resource and environmental protection and the quality and safety of agricultural products, major agricultural products have increased production for consecutive years, the international agricultural product market is adequately supplied, technological models such as ecological agriculture and circular agriculture are being continuously integrated and innovated, and rural reform and reform of the ecological civilization system are advancing steadily. The foundations for advancing sustainable agricultural development are in place.

"Agriculture is the foundation of the state." "Agriculture, rural areas and farmers" are an important foundation for national stability and security. Sustainable agricultural development must, on the one hand, ensure that China's capacity for food security is sustainable and that the Chinese people's rice bowl is firmly held in their own hands; on the other hand, it must ensure the perpetual use of China's agricultural resources, leaving fertile fields, lush mountains and clear waters to future generations.

The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to sustainable agricultural development. In accordance with the deployment of the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Water Resources, the State Forestry Administration and other departments, jointly compiled the National Plan for Sustainable Agricultural Development (2015-2030) on the basis of in-depth grassroots research and expert demonstration. This is a programmatic document guiding sustainable agricultural development for the period ahead. Next, the Ministry of Agriculture will, together with relevant departments, conscientiously perform its duties, carry out implementation well and organize implementation well.

Reporter: Why is the Plan called a "programmatic document"? Please paint for us a picture of what the blueprint for China's sustainable agricultural development will look like in the future.

Han Changfu: The Plan sets out an overall macro design for sustainable agricultural development for the period ahead. It has both a timetable and a road map; both phased goals and a regional layout.

First, the Plan clarifies the guiding ideology and basic principles of sustainable agricultural development. The guiding ideology is to "firmly establish the concept of ecological civilization, adhere to the guiding principles of taking capacity as the foundation, giving priority to conservation, innovation-driven development, governance according to law, benefiting people's livelihood and ensuring safety, accelerate the development of resource-saving, environment-friendly and ecologically conserving agriculture, effectively transform the model of agricultural development, and move as quickly as possible from extensive management that relies on exhausting resources, piling on agricultural inputs and straining the ecological environment to intensive management that focuses on improving quality and efficiency." There are five basic principles: adhere to matching production development with the carrying capacity of resources and the environment; adhere to coordinating innovation-driven development with governance according to law; adhere to unifying current governance with long-term protection; adhere to coordinating pilot trials with demonstration and extension; and adhere to combining market mechanisms with government guidance.

Second, the Plan depicts the blueprint for sustainable agricultural development, which is also the development goal. That is: by 2020, initial results will be achieved in sustainable agricultural development, with obvious economic, social and ecological benefits. Positive progress will be made in transforming the model of agricultural development, comprehensive agricultural production capacity will rise steadily, the agricultural structure will be further optimized, the quality and safety level of agricultural products will continuously improve, the level of agricultural resource protection and utilization efficiency will increase markedly, phased results will be achieved in addressing prominent agricultural environmental problems, the functions of ecosystems such as forests, grasslands, lakes and wetlands will be effectively restored and enhanced, and the rate of biodiversity decline will gradually slow. By 2030, remarkable results will be achieved in sustainable agricultural development. A new pattern of sustainable agricultural development featuring strong supply guarantees, efficient resource use, a good production environment, stable ecosystems, prosperous farmers' lives and beautiful pastoral scenery will be basically established.

To achieve the above development goals, the key is to rationally plan the regional layout, advance in tiers and apply policies by category. The Plan requires that, based on the problems faced by sustainable agricultural development in different places and taking comprehensive account of factors such as the carrying capacity of agricultural resources, environmental capacity, ecological types and development foundations, the whole country be divided into optimized development zones, moderate development zones and protection development zones. In accordance with the principles of adapting measures to local conditions, advancing in tiers and applying policies by category, the direction and focus of sustainable agricultural development in different regions are determined. Among them, the optimized development zones include the Northeast region, the Huang-Huai-Hai region, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River region and the South China region. These are China's main producing areas of bulk agricultural products, with good agricultural production conditions and great potential, but they also face problems such as excessive consumption of land and water resources, environmental pollution, excessive use of agricultural inputs and a not-high degree of resource recycling. It is necessary to adhere to giving priority to production while also taking ecology into account and combining planting with breeding, and, on the premise of ensuring a steady increase in the comprehensive production capacity of grain and other major agricultural products, protect agricultural resources and the ecological environment, so as to achieve stable production development, perpetual resource use and an environment-friendly ecology. The moderate development zones include the Northwest and the area along the Great Wall, and the Southwest region. These have distinctive agricultural production characteristics, but their ecology is fragile, water and land are mismatched, resource-based and engineering-based water shortages are severe, the carrying capacity of resources and the environment is limited, and agricultural infrastructure is relatively weak. It is necessary to adhere to equal emphasis on protection and development, base efforts on resource and environmental endowments, give play to advantages and avoid weaknesses, moderately tap potential, practice intensive conservation and orderly use, and improve resource utilization efficiency. The protection development zones include the Qinghai-Tibet region and the marine fishery region, which hold a special and important strategic position in ecological protection and construction. The Qinghai-Tibet region is the source of China's great rivers and an important ecological security barrier, and is rich in plateau-characteristic agricultural resources, but its ecology is very fragile. The marine fishery region has developed relatively rapidly, but also suffers from declining fishery resources and prominent pollution. It is necessary to adhere to giving priority to protection and restricting development, moderately develop ecological industries and characteristic industries, allow resources such as grasslands and oceans to recuperate, and promote a virtuous cycle of ecosystems.

Reporter: The Plan sets out phased development goals. How will we achieve them?

Han Changfu: According to the Plan, in the period ahead we must focus on advancing and completing five main tasks:

First, optimize the development layout and steadily enhance agricultural production capacity. Optimize the layout of agricultural production. In accordance with the requirement of "basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of staple grains," adhere to adapting measures to local conditions, farming where suitable for farming, animal husbandry where suitable for animal husbandry, and forestry where suitable for forestry, and gradually establish a new pattern of agricultural production in which agricultural productivity matches the carrying capacity of resources and the environment. Strengthen the building of agricultural production capacity. Give full play to the driving role of scientific and technological innovation, implement the strategy of invigorating agriculture through science and education, strengthen independent innovation, integrated innovation and promotion and application in agricultural science and technology, and strive to make breakthroughs first in technical fields such as seed industry and efficient resource utilization. Advance the development of ecological circular agriculture. Optimize and adjust the structure of the planting and breeding industries, and promote the circular linking of planting and breeding, the integration of agriculture and animal husbandry, and the integration of agriculture and forestry. Promote conservation-oriented agricultural technologies such as water-saving, fertilizer-saving and pesticide-saving techniques according to local conditions, as well as ecological circular agriculture models such as "rice-fish symbiosis," "pig-biogas-fruit" and under-forest economy.

Second, protect cultivated land resources and promote the perpetual use of farmland. Stabilize the area of cultivated land. Implement the strictest cultivated land protection system, stabilize the sown area of grain, strictly control newly added construction that occupies cultivated land, ensure that the amount of cultivated land retained is above 1.8 billion mu, and ensure that basic farmland is no less than 1.56 billion mu. Delineate permanent basic farmland and implement permanent protection. Adhere to equal emphasis on both quantity and quality in the balance of cultivated land occupied and reclaimed, and comprehensively advance the stripping and reuse of topsoil from cultivated land occupied by construction. Improve the quality of cultivated land. Adopt soil improvement methods such as deep plowing and deep loosening, conservation tillage, returning straw to the field, increasing the application of organic fertilizer and planting green manure to increase soil organic matter and enhance soil fertility. Restore and cultivate soil microbial communities, build healthy nutrient circulation channels, and promote the decomposition of agricultural waste and environmental organic matter. Moderately retire cultivated land. In accordance with the overall plan for the new round of returning farmland to forest and grassland approved by the State Council, implement the return of "unstable cultivated land" unsuitable for farming to forest and grassland, planting trees where suitable for trees, shrubs where suitable for shrubs and grass where suitable for grass, combining forest and grass where conditions permit, and increasing vegetation coverage.

Third, conserve and use water efficiently and ensure the safety of agricultural water use. Implement red line management of water resources. Establish a red line for controlling water resources development and utilization; establish a red line for controlling water use efficiency. Advance comprehensive management of areas with excessive surface water use and groundwater overexploitation, and moderately reduce irrigated area. Promote water-saving irrigation. Advance high-efficiency water-saving irrigation on a regional and large-scale basis, and accelerate the building of an efficient agricultural water-saving system. Develop water-saving agriculture and increase the construction of water-saving irrigation projects in major grain-producing areas, areas of severe water shortage and ecologically fragile areas. Develop rainfed agriculture. In semi-arid and semi-humid drought-prone areas, build facilities such as farmland rainwater harvesting and rainwater harvesting cellars, promote plastic film mulching technology, carry out grain-grass rotation and strip planting, and advance the combination of planting and breeding. In areas prone to soil erosion, expand the area of conservation tillage.

Fourth, address environmental pollution and improve the agricultural and rural environment. Prevent and control farmland pollution. Comprehensively strengthen the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, fight the tough battle of non-point source pollution control, use agricultural inputs scientifically and rationally, improve use efficiency, achieve zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, and reduce endogenous agricultural pollution. Comprehensively manage pollution from breeding. Support large-scale livestock and poultry farms (communities) in carrying out standardized renovation and construction, raise the level of mechanization in the collection and treatment of livestock and poultry manure, implement the separation of rainwater and sewage, resource utilization of manure, and control pollution emissions from livestock and poultry breeding. Improve the rural environment. Scientifically compile village improvement plans, accelerate comprehensive improvement of the rural environment, protect drinking water sources, strengthen domestic sewage and garbage treatment, and accelerate the building of a rural clean energy system.