Permanent basic farmland protection must start with the big cities

Recently, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued the Notice on Further Improving the Delineation of Permanent Basic Farmland, requiring that high-quality farmland around cities and towns and along transportation routes that is currently vulnerable to being occupied be given priority in being designated as permanent basic farmland, and explicitly proposing to start with big cities with a population of more than 5 million and carry out the delineation work steadily and in an orderly manner. Starting the delineation of permanent basic farmland with big cities draws an insurmountable hard line for farmland protection in big cities!

With the acceleration of urbanisation, the built-up area of cities and towns has continued to expand, and farmland around cities has gradually

decreased. This is true of large and medium-sized cities, and small and medium-sized towns follow suit. If this continues, not only will farmers grieve, but national food security will also be threatened. Therefore, the Notice's requirement to give priority to delineating permanent basic farmland in big cities is particularly crucial. Setting rules for big cities is like tightening the “tap” on illegal changes to farmland use. Only in this way can the actual area of farmland be prevented from shrinking, and can the red line of 1.8 billion mu of farmland be held.

Of course, the reason for setting rules to protect farmland around cities and towns is precisely that such farmland is vulnerable to being occupied. To effectively protect farmland around cities and towns and fully implement the requirements of the Notice, the “rules” that safeguard the rules in practice have yet to be truly tested.