The Information Office held a press conference at 3 p.m. on February 4, 2024 (Sunday), at which Han Wenxiu, Deputy Director of the Office of the Financial and Economic Committee in charge of daily work and Director of the Office of the Rural Work Leading Group, and Zhu Weidong, Deputy Director of the Office of the Financial and Economic Committee and Deputy Director of the Office of the Rural Work Leading Group, introduced the experience of learning and applying the project of "Demonstration of Thousand Villages and Renovation of Ten Thousand Villages" to effectively and effectively promote the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside, and answered questions from reporters. The following is the transcript of the press conference:
Picture of the press conference.
China**Reporter: Agriculture is land-based. May I ask, what are the new requirements for strengthening the protection and construction of cultivated land in the first document of this year? Thank you.
Han Wenxiu: Cultivated land is the lifeblood of grain production, and without arable land security, there will be no food security. In the past two years, various localities have adopted a series of hard measures to implement the strictest cultivated land protection system, and have achieved positive results. According to statistics, from 2021 to 2023, the total amount of cultivated land in the country has achieved a net increase for three consecutive years. This year's No. 1 document emphasizes that the "trinity" protection system of cultivated land quantity, quality and ecology should be improved. It is necessary to focus on three aspects to ensure that the quantity and quality of cultivated land are guaranteed.
First, the total amount of cultivated land should be strictly maintained. The red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land must not be breached. The new round of territorial spatial planning has clarified 186.5 billion acres of arable land and 154.6 billion mu of permanent basic farmland protection tasks, and gradually decomposed to reach all localities. The document sets out clear requirements for the implementation of the task. With regard to the lawful occupation of cultivated land, the focus is on reforming and perfecting the system of balancing occupation and compensation, persisting in "determining the occupation by supplementation", improving the system for accepting the quality of supplementary cultivated land, and preventing the occupation of more than enough to make up for the less, and the advantage from making up for the inferior. We must adhere to zero tolerance, resolutely rectify and severely crack down on illegal acts of indiscriminately occupying and destroying cultivated land, including the indiscriminate construction of "big sheds," the destruction of black soil, and the illegal acquisition of soil. For the "non-grain" of cultivated land, it is necessary to consider the relationship between grain production and the guarantee of important agricultural products and the increase of farmers' income, refine and clarify the scope of rectification, reasonably arrange the restoration sequence, and carry out the rectification and restoration of illegal occupation of cultivated land in a classified and stable manner.
The second is to improve the quality of cultivated land. **The first document takes the construction of high-standard farmland as the starting point, and deploys and strengthens the construction of cultivated land quality. In terms of timing, it is clear that priority should be given to the cultivated land in the black soil area, the plain area, and the area with water conservancy and irrigation conditions in Northeast China to be built into high-standard farmland, and the limited funds should be used to the best advantage. In terms of standards, in view of the low investment standards for high-standard farmland construction, we will make up our minds to increase the level of investment subsidies at the provincial level this year. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen quality supervision to ensure that high-standard farmland deserves its name, and that it is built and built into a piece. In terms of the main body, more rural collective economic organizations, new agricultural business entities, and rural households are encouraged to directly participate in the construction and management of high-standard farmland.
The third is to tap reserve cultivated land resources. The focus is on doing a good job of two pieces of land: One is abandoned land, and all localities are encouraged to make use of the abandoned land in accordance with local conditions, so that grain is suitable for grain and economic use, and some abandoned land is indeed not cultivated, and rural collective economic organizations are supported to make good use of it through various channels such as circulation, trusteeship, and unified management. The other is saline-alkali land, there are many saline-alkali land in China, with the progress of science and technology, the development potential increases accordingly, it is necessary to combine "planting the right land" with "taking the right seed to the land", the seeds and the saline-alkali land should be adapted to each other, and the saline-alkali cultivated land should be improved by zoning and classification, and the effective way of comprehensive utilization of saline-alkali land should be explored. Thank you.