Strengthen Farmland Quality Development to Build a Solid Foundation for National Food Security
On October 29, the Ministry of Agriculture held a national on-site meeting on farmland quality development in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. The reporter learned from the meeting that next year the Ministry of Agriculture will vigorously advance the protection and improvement of farmland quality, with soil fertility enhancement, soil improvement, nutrient balance and quality restoration as the main content, and with high-standard farmland project areas, farmland occupied-compensated balance project areas and areas with prominent farmland quality problems as the implementation priorities, focusing on improving the intrinsic quality of farmland to lay a solid long-term foundation for grain and agricultural production.
The meeting pointed out that the foundation of food security lies in farmland, and the key lies in farmland quality. Over the years, agricultural departments at all levels, while earnestly advancing farmland infrastructure construction, have actively promoted farmland quality development, providing strong support for promoting consecutive years of increased grain output and the sustained and stable development of the planting industry, but a long-term mechanism for farmland quality protection has not yet been established. At present, degraded farmland accounts for more than 40% of total farmland area; the black soil layer in Northeast China is thinning, soils in the South are acidifying, the plow layer of the North China Plain is becoming shallower, and in particular some supplementary farmland is of relatively low quality grade. These problems seriously affect farmland output, while farmland pollution and long-term high-intensity, overloaded use also pose threats to the quality and safety of agricultural products and the sustainable development of agriculture.
The meeting emphasized that for farmland quality development work at present and for a period to come, in terms of development thinking, it is necessary to strengthen “two concepts” and improve “two mechanisms”; that is, establish the concept of “equal emphasis on quantity and quality” of farmland resources, establish the concept of a “quality red line” for farmland protection, improve the management work mechanism, improve the development compensation mechanism, gradually achieve normalized, law-based and standardized farmland quality management, and explore and promote the establishment of compensation policies for farmland development and protection, so as to provide funding guarantees for farmland quality development.
⟦NL> In terms of development goals, centering on achieving the safety of agricultural product quantity, the safety of agricultural product quality and agricultural ecological security, improve the level of field facilities and the basic fertility of farmland, improve the farmland quality environment, and ensure that by 2020, 800 million mu of contiguous, high-standard farmland that yields stable harvests despite drought or excessive rain is built; the basic fertility of farmland is raised by 0.5 grades, and soil organic matter content is raised by 0.5 percentage points; the utilization rate of organic fertilizer resources is raised by 20 percentage points, straw return to the field reaches 80%, zero growth in the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is achieved, and problems such as farmland acidification, salinization and pollution are effectively controlled.
In terms of development paths, coordinate the present and the long term, production and ecology, engineering and technology, and agricultural machinery and agronomy, and highlight the four key points of “improve, cultivate, protect and control.” Among them, “improve” means improving soil, with the focus on improving obstacle soils such as acidified and salinized soils and improving cultivation methods; “cultivate” means cultivating fertility, with the focus on increasing soil organic matter content and raising the basic fertility of farmland; “protect” means protecting water and fertilizer, with the focus on promoting soil testing and formulated fertilization and integrated water and fertilizer management, advancing deep plowing and deep loosening, and promoting contour planting; “control” means pollution control and restoration, with the focus on controlling the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, blocking and controlling heavy metal and organic pollution, and controlling residual agricultural film.
The meeting required that the task of farmland quality development is long-term and arduous, and agricultural departments at all levels must promote the formulation of plans related to farmland quality development, actively coordinate and strive for funding input, make every effort to complete the delineation of permanent basic farmland and the quality acceptance of supplementary farmland, effectively strengthen the development of a farmland quality monitoring system, accelerate the legislative process for farmland quality protection, and make greater contributions to promoting stable increases in grain output, sustained increases in farmers' incomes and the sustained and healthy development of the agricultural and rural economy. Meeting delegates visited the farmland quality development site in Yangzhou City, the National Soil Testing and Formulated Fertilization Data Platform and the Jiangsu Province Farmland Quality Management Data Center.