(Economic Watch) China strictly adheres to the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land to ensure national food security

　　China News Agency, Beijing, June 25 (Reporter Pang Wuji) June 25 is the 32nd National "Land Day".

China is the first country in the world to set up a special anniversary to protect land.

　　From 400 million people who could not eat enough in the past to more than 1.4 billion people who eat well today, the question of "who will feed the Chinese" has been answered forcefully.

However, experts pointed out that the foundation of China's food security is still not solid. There is only so much arable land, and the potential is so great. A tight balance is still the long-term trend of food security.

In particular, at present, the great changes unseen in a century are intertwined with the epidemic of the century, economic globalization is facing adverse currents, and the world is entering a new period of turbulent changes. It is particularly important to maintain the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land to ensure national food security.

　　At present, the situation of cultivated land protection is not optimistic.

The results of the "Three National Land Surveys" show that by the end of 2019, China's arable land area was 1.918 billion mu, and the per capita arable land area was only 1.36 mu, less than 40% of the world average.

At the same time, the spatial distribution of China's arable land resources is uneven, and the overall quality is not high. More than half of the arable land is harvested from the sky.

In the 10 years from the "Second National Land Adjustment" to the "Third National Land Adjustment", the total amount of construction land in China has increased by 26.5%, and the problem of illegal occupation of cultivated land has also occurred from time to time.

　　In order to firmly hold the red line of 1.8 billion mu of arable land, the Ministry of Natural Resources of China stated that it has taken a series of hard measures to "grow teeth".

　　For example, in the construction of the rule of law, a draft law on farmland protection is being drafted.

In terms of clarifying the red line, the Ministry of Natural Resources, together with relevant departments, jointly compiled the "National Land and Spatial Planning Outline (2021-2035)", which will be carried out in the five provinces in accordance with the priority of the red line of cultivated land and permanent basic farmland, the red line of ecological protection and the boundary of urban development. A pilot program for the delineation of "three districts and three lines" was launched.

Establish the 2035 arable land holdings and permanent basic farmland protection goals and tasks, and make it clear that except for 6 situations, all current arable land must be included in the red line of arable land protection, and the location will be broken down and issued.

　　Facing the future, how to increase the protection of cultivated land?

　　The Ministry of Natural Resources pointed out that under the premise of tight constraints on land resources, in order to achieve high-quality and sustainable development, the whole society must enhance the awareness of economical and intensive land use and comprehensively improve the efficiency of land use.

This means that it is necessary to adhere to the strictest cultivated land protection system and the strictest land conservation system, and promote the implementation of various measures to be effective.

　　The first is to speed up the legislative process such as the Law on Farmland Protection.

Requirements and policy measures such as the equal responsibility of the party and the government for arable land protection, the annual "balance of in and out" of arable land, and the prohibition of "non-agriculturalization" and "non-graining" of arable land have been raised into legal regulations.

　　The second is to strictly control the use of cultivated land and implement the "two balances".

On the one hand, strictly control the conversion of cultivated land into non-agricultural construction land, pay close attention to the authenticity of the supplementary cultivated land, improve the quality inspection methods for newly added cultivated land, and strictly implement the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation; The "balance in and out" of cultivated land ensures that the cultivated land that can be used stably for a long time will not decrease.

　　The third is to take revolutionary measures to promote economical and intensive land use.

For example: comprehensively revise the land use quota standards of various industries, strengthen the rigid constraints of economical and intensive land use in the generation stage of major construction projects, promote strict special evaluation in the project generation stage or the process of project feasibility study, and promote new projects to meet the domestic industry's economical and intensive level Advanced level of land use.

　　The fourth is to seriously investigate and punish the illegal occupation of cultivated land.

Steadily promote the pilot program of special rectification of rural occupation of farmland and build houses, and implement a long-term supervision mechanism for the investigation and rectification of "greenhouse" problems.

Comprehensive use of satellite law enforcement, listing supervision, public notification and other means to increase the investigation and punishment of illegal occupation of cultivated land.

Strengthen the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, transfer crimes involving crimes to judicial organs in a timely manner for criminal responsibility, and send a strong signal to the society to strictly adhere to the red line of cultivated land and to "zero tolerance" for illegal occupation of cultivated land.

　　The fifth is to strictly assess the target of arable land protection responsibility, and implement the same responsibility of the party and the government.

Promote the application of the assessment results of arable land protection responsibility objectives, reward provinces that have achieved the protection objectives and have achieved remarkable results, and implement compensatory penalties for those who fail to achieve the protection objectives.

The responsibilities for the protection of cultivated land have been consolidated layer by layer, and rigid index assessment has been implemented.

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