2014 World Food Day and National Grain Love and Grain Saving Publicity Week Event

Report from our website  On October 16, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Administration of Grain and other relevant units, together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, jointly held the 2014 “World Food Day” and “National Grain Love and Grain Saving Publicity Week” event at the Tsinghua University Auditorium. Nearly 1,000 people attended, including representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Administration of Grain, and international organizations' offices in China, as well as representatives of Tsinghua University faculty and students, primary and secondary school students, enterprises, and the news media. Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun, Director of the State Administration of Grain Ren Zhengxiao, and FAO Representative in China Misca attended the event and delivered speeches.

In his speech, Niu Dun pointed out that this year's “World Food Day” theme is “Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth”, which aims to emphasize the important role of family farming in maintaining food security, eliminating poverty, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable development in rural areas. This theme is highly consistent with our country's national conditions. Family farming is the mainstay of our country's agriculture, and farmers support the entire nation's food supply. They work hard and tirelessly, feeding more than 1.3 billion people across the country and carrying forward China's excellent farming civilization.

Niu Dun stated that the Chinese government has always attached great importance to agricultural development and food security, continuously increasing the intensity of policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich rural areas, and the comprehensive grain production capacity has steadily improved. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the central government has clearly put forward the national food security strategy under the new situation, emphasizing the extreme importance of food security from the perspective of governing the country and ensuring national stability. General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that in safeguarding national food security, this string can never be loosened at any time. For some time to come, we must firmly follow the requirements of the national food security strategy, strictly guard the red line of arable land, closely rely on science and technology to tap the potential for increasing grain production, persistently rely on policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich rural areas to mobilize and protect production enthusiasm, accelerate the cultivation of new types of agricultural business entities, and effectively strengthen the working mechanism of prioritizing agriculture and grain production. In the future, we are fully confident of solving the problem of feeding the Chinese people.

The event also invited the national “Clean Plate” campaign initiator, advanced exemplary figures in grain love and grain saving, and representatives of large grain producers to speak at the meeting and introduce their exemplary deeds in grain love and grain saving. Participants in Tsinghua University's “Clean Plate” campaign read out the “Save a Grain of Rice, We Are in Action” national initiative letter jointly launched by the State Administration of Grain, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Communist Youth League Central Committee, the All-China Women's Federation and other units. The commemorative event was rich, colorful, vivid and lively.

Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice in our country, was invited to attend this event.