Achievements in Agricultural and Rural Economic Development in the First Half of the Year and the Overall Situation of Agricultural Product Quality and Safety
Since the beginning of this year, agricultural departments at all levels have carried out in depth the “Year of Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Supervision” campaign, earnestly implemented the eight measures of the Ministry of Agriculture to strengthen agricultural product quality and safety supervision, and adhered to both strict law enforcement supervision and the advancement of standardized production, achieving phased progress and results. In the first half of the year, no major agricultural product quality and safety incidents occurred, and the pass rates of routine monitoring for vegetables, livestock and poultry, and aquatic products reached 95.9%, 99.4% and 93.1% respectively, maintaining a relatively high level.
Special rectification was advanced in depth. Guided by solving prominent problems, 7 special governance actions were launched. In the first half of the year, agricultural departments nationwide inspected 1.4 million production and operation units, investigated and dealt with 23,000 problems, and transferred 84 cases to judicial authorities. More than 1,300 tons of fake and inferior agricultural materials were seized, recovering 280 million yuan in direct economic losses for farmers, and 23 typical cases were publicly announced. In the main production areas of the “vegetable basket” program, the system of designated operation and real-name purchase for highly toxic pesticides was implemented; 6,978 batches of feed samples were spot-checked, one third of feed enterprises were eliminated, six milk source supervision measures were implemented, and 5,925 milk stations and 2,870 fresh milk transport vehicles were inspected on site; a public notice on heavier penalties for illegal veterinary drug acts was issued, strengthening supervision over 15,000 designated pig slaughter enterprises nationwide; and risk screening for fishery inputs was launched, strengthening law enforcement for aquatic product quality and safety.
Risk prevention capacity was gradually enhanced. In main production areas, 145 risk assessment experimental stations were recognized, initially forming a relatively complete agricultural product safety risk assessment system. The scope of routine monitoring was expanded to 153 large and medium-sized cities, 86 varieties and 94 parameters, basically covering major cities, production areas, varieties and parameters, and 12 categories of agricultural products including the “vegetable basket” products and bulk grain and oil were included in the scope of agricultural product quality and safety risk assessment. The Emergency Plan for Agricultural Product Quality and Safety was revised, and the scope of public opinion monitoring was expanded. A general survey of heavy metal pollution in production areas was carried out, and pilot work on heavy metal pollution remediation and crop planting structure adjustment was launched.
Agricultural standardization was steadily advanced. Together with the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the 2014 version of the national standard for pesticide residues in food was issued, involving 3,650 limit indicators. A total of 138 new national and industry standards for agriculture were formulated. Standardized production of horticultural crops, unified pest and disease control, and green control were promoted. A total of 1,600 “three gardens and two farms” were newly created, and 48 standardized demonstration counties were established. More than 9,700 pollution-free, green, organic and geographical indication agricultural products were newly certified, bringing the total number of certified agricultural products to 106,000.
The construction of the supervision system was fully launched. The construction of the agricultural product quality and safety supervision system, teams and capacity was accelerated. At present, 75% of prefecture-level cities and 60% of counties and cities nationwide have established dedicated supervision agencies, up 15% and 10% year on year respectively. An investment of 1.2 billion yuan was implemented for the construction of the quality inspection system, supporting the construction of 385 agricultural product quality inspection agencies and enhancing the quality and safety testing capacity of grassroots agricultural products.