Three ministries and commissions stress: Protect farmland like protecting giant pandas
Currently, the area of rural land transfer in our country has exceeded 30% of the total contracted land area. Overall, the land transfer situation is good, but some undesirable tendencies toward non-grain and non-agricultural use have also emerged. Our country has a large population and little land, and the farmland that concerns the food supply of over a billion people is a matter of top priority, and the red line must be resolutely held——
Recently, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave important instructions on farmland protection work. On May 26, the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Agriculture held a video conference to put forward specific requirements for implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's instructions and comments and doing a good job in farmland protection work.
The meeting emphasized that farmland is our country's most precious resource, and the strictest farmland protection system must be implemented, protecting farmland like protecting giant pandas. At the same time, the meeting also proposed that in the reform of the rural land system, strict control must be exercised, and some people must not be allowed to occupy farmland under the name of reform.
Experts believe that this shows that the central government will strictly control the threshold of rural land system reform pilots and, in accordance with the strictest farmland protection requirements, regulate and solve new problems that arise in the balance of farmland occupation and compensation and in farmland protection.
Our country has a large population and little land, so how to protect the farmland that is tied to the major issue of food supply for over a billion people has naturally become a matter of top priority. Minister of Land and Resources Jiang Daming said that although the current farmland area data has increased somewhat, the actual farmland used for grain production has not increased, and the basic national condition of little per capita farmland, generally low farmland quality, and insufficient reserve farmland resources has not changed.
In the face of farmland occupation during industrialization and urbanization, our country implements a policy of balance between farmland occupation and compensation, but as land system reform advances, in some places there are phenomena such as insufficient quantity and quality of compensated farmland, occupying more and compensating less, occupying superior land and compensating with inferior land, and occupying paddy fields and compensating with dry fields.
For this reason, planning control and use regulation must be strengthened, and the red line for farmland protection must be resolutely held. At present, all localities are adjusting and improving overall land use planning in order to effectively control the scale of agricultural land conversion, control unreasonable occupation of farmland, and strictly prevent industrial and commercial capital from engaging in non-agricultural construction after intervening in land transfer.
A special inspection carried out by land and resources departments last year found that all localities have problems to varying degrees, such as land approved but not supplied, land supplied but not used, and low-efficiency idle land. Preliminary statistics show that across the country, land approved but not supplied reached 13 million mu, and idle land reached 1.05 million mu. For this reason, our country will fully tap the potential of existing construction land, strive to ease the pressure of new construction land on farmland occupation, strictly implement the balance of occupation and compensation, and ensure that both the quantity and quality of compensated farmland are in place.
Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said that in guiding the orderly transfer of rural land, it is necessary to resolutely prevent “non-grain” and “non-agricultural” use.
It is reported that at present the area of rural land transfer in our country has exceeded 30% of the total contracted land area, and some emerging and tendentious problems have appeared: some places are keen on administrative promotion, one-sidedly pursuing transfer speed and super-large-scale operations; after some industrial and commercial capital enters agriculture, it directly leases farmland on a large scale for a long time, competing with farmers for profits; some have already experienced poor operations and triggered social conflicts; and some carry out non-agricultural construction after land transfer, damaging farmland resources.
For this reason, last year the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Moderately Scaled Agricultural Operations," which explicitly prohibited this, but in some places there are still phenomena of failing to comply with regulations to varying degrees.
Experts say that scaled agricultural operations can take many forms. In addition to land transfer, the level of organization and scale can also be raised through developing associations and cooperation among farming households and agricultural socialized services.
However, in the process of industrial and commercial capital entering agriculture, it is also necessary to prevent the “non-agriculturalization” and “non-grainization” of land, especially in major grain-producing areas, grain production functional zones, and high-yield creation demonstration zones, where this bottom line must be held even more firmly. Industrial and commercial capital going to the countryside should be devoted to developing modern planting and breeding industries and agricultural services suitable for enterprise-based operations.
Industry insiders point out that these industries mainly include agricultural products processing, storage, transportation and marketing, agricultural socialized services, fine seed breeding, high-standard facility agriculture, scaled breeding, as well as the development of rural “four wastelands” resources, land consolidation, high-standard farmland construction, agricultural environmental governance and ecological restoration, etc.
Recently, the Central Rural Work Office, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce jointly issued the "Opinions on Supervision and Risk Prevention of Industrial and Commercial Capital Leasing Farmland," proposing regulatory rules for industrial and commercial capital going to the countryside. Strictly regulating the term and area of industrial and commercial capital leasing farmland will include clear upper-limit controls.