Minister of Agriculture: Farmland must never be converted to non-agricultural use; farmers may move into non-agricultural work

Qiushi, Issue 19 of 2014, published a signed article by Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu, stating that the national food security strategy under the new situation must be fully implemented.

The article points out that we must resolutely hold the lifeline of farmland. This is where the lifeblood of national food security lies. Farmland is the lifeline of grain production; we must both maintain its quantity and improve its quality. Although the Second National Land Survey showed that the book figure for farmland increased somewhat, there is still just as much farmland and just as much production capacity as before, so in reality there has been no increase. On this, we must have a clear “red line awareness”; the farmland red line must be strictly guarded, farmers may move into non-agricultural work, but farmland must never be converted to non-agricultural use. Strong measures must be taken to keep the farmland area basically stable, and permanent basic farmland must be demarcated to ensure that there is “land available for planting.” Funds from projects such as the plan to add 100 billion jin of grain production capacity, comprehensive agricultural development, and land consolidation should be concentrated to vigorously carry out the construction of high-standard farmland that guarantees harvests despite drought or excessive rain. By 2020, the whole country must newly build 800 million mu of high-standard farmland that guarantees harvests despite drought or excessive rain.

Firmly rely on science and technology to tap the potential for increasing grain production. This is the fundamental way to achieve sustained increases in grain output. Over the past 10 years, China's grain yield per mu increased by 69.6 kg, contributing close to 70% of the increase in grain output. To continue increasing output from a high starting point, we must give better play to the potential of science and technology to raise production, and focus on promoting the application of new varieties, new technologies, and new machinery. We must accelerate the screening and application of a batch of new varieties suited to local characteristics, high-yielding, high-quality, and strongly stress-resistant. We must continue to carry out large-scale high-yield grain creation, do a good job of advancing it across entire townships and entire counties as a whole, integrate and promote advanced and practical technologies, solidly carry out research on grain yield increase models, and promote balanced yield increases over large areas. We must speed up the process of full mechanization of grain production, vigorously advance deep loosening and land preparation by agricultural machinery, and further give play to the role of agricultural machinery as a carrier in invigorating grain production through science and technology.

Persistently strengthen and improve policies benefiting farmers. This is a key factor in promoting the stable development of grain production. Grain production has achieved “ten consecutive increases,” and the most important reason is still good policy: the central policies have been strong, and localities have also introduced many supporting policies. In the future, while improving and strengthening policy, we must work hard to implement it strictly. We must continue to implement the “four subsidies” policy, with newly added agricultural subsidies focused on large grain-growing households, family farms, farmer cooperatives, and other new types of business entities, so that those who produce more grain receive more subsidies. We must accelerate the improvement of the benefit compensation mechanism for main producing areas, continue to increase rewards for major grain-producing counties, and mobilize the production enthusiasm of main producing areas. We must implement the state minimum purchase price and temporary storage policies well, keep the price level of agricultural products reasonable, promote increased income for farmers from growing grain, and make farmers love growing grain and grow good grain.

Accelerate the cultivation of new types of agricultural business entities. This is the response to the question of “who will grow grain” and the development of modern agriculture, and it is also a focus of deepening rural reform. On the basis of stabilizing the rural land contracting relationship and keeping it unchanged for a long time, we must guide the orderly transfer of land, develop appropriately scaled operations, support the development of large grain-growing households, family farms, farmer cooperatives, leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, and socialized service organizations, and actively cultivate new types of agricultural business entities. We must carry out farmer vocational training through multiple channels, accelerate the cultivation of a large number of new-type professional farmers, with training focused on skilled grain growers, skilled agricultural machinery operators, science and technology leaders, agricultural marketing talent, and agricultural management talent, improve agricultural support policies, and attract some young and middle-aged people to stay in rural areas and engage in agriculture. We must encourage and support specialized commercial service organizations in providing services such as seed supply and seedling raising, agricultural machinery operations, agricultural input supply, and agricultural product processing and marketing, and accelerate the building of a three-dimensional and composite modern agricultural management system based on household farming, linked by cooperation and association, and supported by socialized services.