How are permanent basic farmland areas designated?

Does designating permanent basic farmland around cities restrict urban development? How can we prevent padding the numbers and unauthorized changes of use? How can long-term protection of basic farmland be achieved? See our reporter's investigation.

Fitting good farmland with a "protective shield" so urban development no longer "spreads like a pancake"

Under the scorching sun, in the rice paddies of Laosha Community, Shuangpu Town, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, farmers with their trousers rolled up and backs bent are replanting seedlings. Not far away lies the local resort; city traffic hums and village fields glow green, two scenes in the same time and space setting each other off.

Laosha Community faces the Qiantang River to the north and the Fuchun River to the south, and farmers have tilled the land here for generations. Community Party secretary Huang Hua once worried about the fate of this good farmland: "The city keeps expanding, the inner suburbs keep being developed -- will this land also be filled in? On the other hand, farming has brought low returns in recent years, most villagers go out to work and are unwilling to put much effort into the fields, and the land has tended to lie fallow."

Now Huang Hua can rest easy. In 2014 Hangzhou launched its permanent basic farmland designation work, and 1053 mu of land in Laosha Community was designated as permanent basic farmland. "Now we're reassured -- our land can be passed on to our children and grandchildren," Huang Hua said. The village's land has relatively complete infrastructure, and now many enterprises are eager to cooperate with them, with transfer fees of more than 1500 yuan per mu per year.

Cultivated land is China's most precious resource, the foundation and lifeblood of rural development and agricultural modernization, and the root of ensuring food security lies in cultivated land. But in recent years, as the economy has developed and urbanization has accelerated, the scale of construction land in many domestic cities has kept expanding, and the construction intensity of some cities has even broken through the 30% international warning line.

"Pancake-style" sprawl has brought many cities the "growing pains" of growth: cultivated land and wetlands around cities have shrunk, urban ecological belts have been damaged, improving environmental quality has become harder, the urban heat island effect has become prominent, and the number of hazy days has increased...

How can skyscrapers and patchwork farmland coexist harmoniously? Hangzhou Mayor Zhang Hongming said that besides carrying the function of grain production, farmland also has an ecological function. Without farmland, a city is just a concrete forest, lacking vitality and beauty.

In order to optimize the urban-rural spatial pattern and form a physical boundary for urban development, the national permanent basic farmland designation work was launched early last year. A relevant official of the Ministry of Land and Resources' Department of Cultivated Land Protection said that once permanent basic farmland is designated, it must not be adjusted at will. Except where the siting of national key construction projects stipulated by law cannot avoid it, no other construction may occupy it, and the "non-agriculturalization" of permanent basic farmland must be resolutely prevented.

After taking the lead in completing designation, the area of permanent basic farmland protected around Hangzhou reached 25.2 wan mu. Permanent basic farmland accounted for 60.53% of cultivated land area, and the inclusion rate of high-standard farmland and grain production functional areas reached 100%.

In terms of distribution: in the east of the city, farmland around the Xiaoshan District ring road and along the Qiantang River is lush and green; in the west, the Xixi Wuchang wetlands and farmland form an urban oxygen bar; in the north, Qiaosi Farm forms a natural barrier for the city; in the south, the Puyang River, Xianghu Lake and farmland interweave into a beautiful scene of mountains, waters, fields and city. After designation, the permanent basic farmland together with forests, rivers, lakes and hills forms an urban ecological barrier, broadens the city's green space, and integrates good mountains, good waters and good farmland into the city and into people's lives.

Drawing red lines, setting boundaries, squeezing out padding -- not just designating enough in quantity, but designating well in quality

Designating permanent basic farmland around cities can further force the economical and intensive use of land, and will play an important role in implementing the strategy of storing grain in the land, stabilizing and raising grain production capacity, effectively safeguarding national food security, and protecting farmers' land rights and interests. The benefits are naturally many, but how to designate it -- the most crucial and also the most difficult part -- is the transformation of ideas.

Jin Yuanhong, Party branch secretary of Shiqiao Village, Liangzhu Subdistrict, Yuhang District, told reporters: "Villagers used to think that once land was contracted to households, it was their own and they could do whatever they wanted with it. Some occupied a bit of farmland when building houses, some dumped garbage in the fields, some dug fish ponds in the fields -- it was very hard to manage. Now, after permanent basic farmland is designated, on the one hand we explain to villagers that they absolutely must not encroach on farmland at will, and on the other hand we organize villagers to transfer land to cooperatives for contiguous operation. After obtaining tangible transfer income, farmers' awareness of protecting farmland has clearly grown stronger."

Regarding the designation of permanent basic farmland around cities, an expert said: "Through designation, we must both form the 'red line' for cultivated land protection and the physical boundary for urban development, and also 'squeeze out the padding' from the current situation in which some urban planned construction land overlaps heavily with high-quality cultivated land. This will naturally make some cities find it hard to adapt."

"Changing our thinking means integrating the protection of permanent basic farmland around cities into urban construction and economic development, rather than setting them in opposition," said Shen Leyi, deputy director of the Planning and Cultivated Land Protection Division of the Hangzhou Municipal Land and Resources Bureau. "In the designation process, we have adhered to advancing the red line for permanent basic farmland, the urban development boundary and the ecological red line simultaneously. At the same time, on the one hand, we have adhered to 'encouraging designation' in permitted construction areas, 'squeezing designation' in conditionally permitted construction areas, and 'designating as much as possible' in restricted and prohibited construction areas; on the other hand, we have adhered to the principle of combining protection priority with reasonable reservation, leaving local areas space for public facilities and necessary development land while designating enough and designating well, so as to ensure the development rights and interests of the people in basic farmland protection areas."

-- Designating enough in quantity. This time Hangzhou newly designated 4.72 wan mu of permanent basic farmland around the city, and together with the original existing basic farmland, permanent basic farmland designation around the city reached 25.20 wan mu. Among this, Qiaosi Farm within the jurisdiction of the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone alone had more than 2 wan mu of contiguous high-quality cultivated land newly designated, leaving the city a "green heart and green lungs" and a stable vegetable garden.

-- Designating well in quality. Hangzhou gave priority to designating as permanent basic farmland the high-quality cultivated land around towns and along transport routes that is easily occupied, as well as already-built high-standard farmland and grain production functional areas. After designation, the proportion of paddy fields reached 87.89%, and cultivated land quality showed a trend of "higher grades rising, lower grades falling." Among this, the proportion of grade 6 cultivated land rose to 19.66%, the proportion of grade 7 cultivated land rose to 35.10%, and the proportion of grade 8 cultivated land fell to 37.84%.

Both an urban landscape and the rice bag and vegetable basket -- the key is to establish a long-term mechanism for basic farmland protection

The tiller goes first, and a flock of egrets follows close behind. "The tiller turns up the insects in the paddy field, which naturally attracts the egrets. Egrets have high requirements for their habitat, which shows our crops have little pollution," said Zhang Shuibao, Party branch secretary of Yong'an Village, Yuhang Subdistrict, Yuhang District.

Pointing to the newly repaired irrigation channel, Zhang Shuibao said, "The old earthen channels leaked badly. Through continuous improvement, our village has formed high-standard farmland with square fields, linked channels, water that can be let in and drainage that can be let out. Rice and vegetable cultivation are both better guaranteed."

Permanent basic farmland is residents' "rice bag" and "vegetable basket." How to achieve long-term protection after designation is even more important. And this cannot be separated from the establishment and improvement of relevant policies and mechanisms.

Managing permanent basic farmland well requires stimulating the enthusiasm of village collectives and farmers. Reporters learned that Yuhang District has piloted a paid cultivated land protection system since 2011. Compensation is given to collective economic organizations and farming households at a standard of 100 yuan per mu per year, mainly used for repairing farmland infrastructure and cultivating soil fertility, with the amount of subsidy funds linked to the protection of basic farmland.

Starting this year, Zhejiang Province, building on earlier pilot programs, has fully implemented a cultivated land protection compensation mechanism, enabling rural collective economic organizations and farming households to obtain long-term stable income from protecting permanent basic farmland. It is reported that this year the Zhejiang provincial treasury has already allocated 6.14 yi yuan in cultivated land protection compensation funds.

At the same time, Hangzhou has issued supporting land use policies for basic farmland protection areas to safeguard local people's reasonable land use needs. Planned construction land outside protection areas is reserved for village collectives and villagers undertaking basic farmland protection for public facility support and farmhouse construction. A comprehensive soil and geological survey of permanent basic farmland has been carried out, and based on the survey results, guidance is provided to optimize the adjustment of cultivated land planting structure and develop specialty industries.

Managing permanent basic farmland well depends on implementing responsibility on specific people. In Yong'an Village, a sign is erected at the head of every field designated as permanent basic farmland, engraved with the basic information of the field, as well as the name of the "field chief" and the reporting method. "Permanent basic farmland is managed through a grid system: the village Party secretary serves as field chief, and members of the village committee serve as grid chiefs. Those responsible patrol and supervise the use of permanent basic farmland, and once illegal encroachment or illegal use occurs, we will promptly stop such behavior," said Yong'an Village "field chief" Zhang Shuibao.

At present, Yuhang District has a total of 40 town and subdistrict "field chiefs," 231 village and community "field chiefs," and 981 grid chiefs. As the "managers" of each piece of basic farmland, they guard this land, hoping to leave more good farmland and green fields for future generations.