Ensuring food security while protecting farmers' interests

"In order to ensure that all the grain farmers want to sell can be purchased, we built this covered shed warehouse, which requires little investment, delivers quick results, and can also ensure food security." On September 10, in No. 2 granary of the Siping City Second Grain Depot, depot director Li Shuguo stood atop a golden grain pile more than 6 meters high, with nearly 22,000 tonnes of corn beneath his feet. "As a vehicle for building Siping City's grain purchase and storage security system, last year we purchased and stored 48,000 tonnes of marketable grain sold by farmers in two nearby townships. All the relevant information on grain purchasing has already been entered into the information database."

In front of a large electronic screen at the Siping City Grain Bureau, staff retrieved the information of the Siping City Second Grain Depot from the information database. This is a very detailed statistical table, including basic enterprise information and equipment information, with a total of 10 forms. Kou Chunsheng, director of the Siping City Grain Bureau, introduced: "This is the electronic table of the basic situation of Siping City's local grain purchase and storage security system. The data reflected in the 10 forms cover about 1,000 items. Through these forms, one can fully understand the layout of grain purchase and storage throughout Siping City."

In Kou Chunsheng's view, building a local grain purchase and storage security system can, on the one hand, provide parameters for the archival management of the national grain purchase and storage security system, and more importantly, can serve national macro-control, ensure food security, and protect farmers' interests. It can effectively solve the difficult problem of grain "having nowhere to be stored" and play a role in stabilizing the market, caring for farmers, and preparing for famine.

For a long time, "having nowhere to be stored" has been a major problem constraining grain production in Jilin Province. It is understood that Jilin Province currently has an effective warehouse capacity of 18.75 million tonnes. Under normal circumstances, about 13.5 million tonnes of grain are stored in the open air for more than half a year, bringing great hidden dangers to safe grain storage and fire safety. This year, Jilin Province is accelerating the construction of a local grain purchase and storage security system, implementing archival filing and record management for enterprises included in the system, ensuring that purchase and storage capacity remains stable and scale does not decrease, and enhancing grain purchase and storage capacity, striving to completely eliminate unreasonable open-air grain storage within 3 to 5 years.

Shen Qidi, deputy inspector of the Provincial Grain Bureau, believes that from the perspective of future development, with the rapid advancement of urbanization, the increased degree of organization in agricultural production, including the acceleration of land circulation, a grain purchase and storage security system needs to be established as soon as possible.

When purchasing grain, it is necessary to consider not only the fixed warehouse capacity and land occupation of the purchasing enterprise, but also the enterprise's mechanical equipment, including grain transfer machines, elevators, vehicles, and other information. Shen Qidi introduced: "Accelerating the construction of a local grain purchase and storage security system has a landmark goal, which is to establish archives." He said that the purpose of establishing archives is to enable the government to understand in real time and intuitively the purchase, sales, storage, transportation, and processing conditions and credit records of enterprises within the grain purchase and storage security system in its administrative region, as well as whether grain purchase and storage facilities formed by government investment have had their purposes changed, among other conditions. This is the foundational work for implementing supervision. Through establishing an archival management system, the government's capacity for grain macro-control and emergency grain security can be improved, promoting the stable and healthy development of the grain market. At present, drawing on the experience and lessons of provinces such as Shandong and Anhui in archival management for system construction, Jilin Province has developed a set of archival management systems with Jilin Province characteristics. Once this system matures, it can better serve national macro-control and protect the interests of grain-growing farmers.

By integrating existing local state-owned grain enterprises and fully utilizing stock resources, Jilin Province takes directly affiliated local state-owned grain depots as the main body and grassroots purchase and sales networks as the foundation to establish a local grain purchase and storage security system, forming a grain purchase and storage security system covering all townships (towns). It also directs the special construction of the "Grain Security Project" mainly toward enterprises within the local grain purchase and storage security system, and according to the province's planning and layout, has created a group of core enterprises with strong strength and good credit.

In the yard of Nanshan Grain Depot, the largest grain depot in Siping City, a house-type warehouse construction project is being accelerated. Depot director Zuo An introduced the project situation: "This is a national grain storage house-type warehouse construction project. One grain storage warehouse has a construction area of 5,500 sq m and a warehouse capacity of 25,000 tonnes. The overall project will be completed by the end of December this year, ensuring that new grain can be loaded by the end of this year."