Goals set for high-quality farmland

The central government is setting specific goals and requirements for developing high-standard farmland, providing a solid basis to guarantee the country's food security.

According to the guideline released recently by the State Council, China aims to cultivate high-standard farmland covering up to 53 million hectares by the end of 2020.

Moreover, high-standard farmland is expected to grow to 67 million hectares - a level sufficient to ensure production capacity exceeding 500 billion kilograms of general produce.

Through continuing efforts, the area will witness significant improvement in terms of land quality by the end of 2035, it said.

"High-standard farmland is essential for China to expand its grain output and strengthen its national food security," said Yu Xinrong, vice-minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

Yu emphasized that high-standard farmland will give stable support to food security when the country encounters severe meteorological disasters.

To realize the goal, an integrated system will be built to guide planning and layout, development, and management of such farmland, according to the guideline.

It said certain areas will be designated for developing high-standard farmland, including permanent basic farmland protection areas, functional grain growing areas and protected areas for important agricultural products.

The system will also set unified standards for project implementation and investment involved in cultivating high-standard farmland.

A big data platform will be built to ensure data traceability, whole-process monitoring, precise control and resource sharing by putting all high-standard farmland into one map.

Clear accountability is also stressed. The guideline said measures should be taken to improve ways to assess the results of relevant projects, in line with the requirement of a governor responsibility system.

Moreover, the system will set unified standards for project implementation and investment involved in cultivating high-standard farmland.

"Farmers should play a more active role in the development of high-standard farmland," ministry spokesman Guang Defu said. "The public will be informed of the construction work for supervision."

He explained that priority support will be given to revolutionary base areas, poor areas and areas where conditions are favorable to growing agriculture products.

While China's population accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world's total, its food production accounts for a quarter of that total, according to a white paper titled "Food Security in China", released by the State Council Information Office in October.

It says per capita grain output in China is 470 kg, a rise of 14 percent compared with 1996.

This year, the central government gave total financial support of 85.9 trillion yuan to the construction of high-quality farmland, said Xu Liuqing, director of the agriculture and rural affairs department under the Ministry of Finance.

While prioritizing farmland construction in allocating funds, the guideline said governments should also hammer out innovative investment and financing channels, such as attracting social capital.