Author: Cai Hailong (Professor, College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Researcher, National Academy of Agricultural and Rural Development)
Celebrate the harvest, sing the National Day, and in the golden autumn season, the activities of celebrating the harvest festival and the National Day are in full swing. Planting a grain of millet in the spring and harvesting 10,000 seeds in the autumn, 2021 is another harvest year. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's summer grain output in 2021 is 145.82 million tons, an increase of 2.967 million tons over 2020, an increase of 2.1%. The overall situation of autumn grain production is good, and the trend of increasing production is obvious. According to the agricultural dispatch of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the autumn grain planting area in the country exceeds 1.29 billion mu, the growth process of autumn grain crops in most areas is normal, the soil moisture is suitable, the prevention and control of diseases and insects is in place, the crop growth is good, and the fundamentals of the autumn grain harvest are good. Only by firmly holding the rice bowl in one's own hands can we maintain the stability of the overall social situation and thus better build a strong modern socialist country.
Looking back on the past, China's food security has made remarkable achievements and made positive contributions to world food security. In 2020, China's grain output reached a level of nearly 670 million tons, the average yield per mu reached 382 kg, grain production achieved "seventeen consecutive years", and the total grain output was stable at more than 650 million tons for 6 consecutive years. Per capita food production has reached about 475 kg, which is much higher than the world food security standard line of 400 kg per capita. After years of development, China has not only solved the problem of food and clothing that has long plagued the people of Chinese, but also realized the historic change from "not enough to eat" to "enough to eat" and then to pursue "eat well.". Freedom from hunger is the most basic human right of mankind, and food security is an important guarantee for a country's economic and social development, an important prerequisite for national self-reliance and world peace. The United Nations is committed to achieving global food security and has made the eradication of hunger and the achievement of food security an important element of the Sustainable Development Goals. China feeds nearly 20% of the world's population with 9% of the world's arable land, and actively participates in global hunger eradication actions and food trade, not only successfully solving the problem of feeding more than 1.4 billion people, but also making outstanding contributions to world food security.
Celebrating a bumper harvest and thanking the party for its gratitude, China's achievements in food security are inseparable from the great importance attached by the PARTY Central Committee and the State Council to grain production. Hong Fan is the eight governments, and food is the head of the government. Since the founding of New China, the party and the state have always regarded ensuring the stable production of grain and the effective supply of grain as an important task in governing the country and ensuring national security. Faced with the question "Who will feed China?" The white paper "China's Food Security Problem" released in 1996 put forward the basic policy of "basing on domestic resources and achieving basic self-sufficiency in grain". Through unremitting efforts and struggles, china has effectively achieved basic self-sufficiency in grain on the basis of a very weak agricultural foundation and relying on its own strength. Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has insisted on taking food security as the top priority in governing the country, and after comprehensively considering the domestic and international environment, it has established a national food security strategy of "taking me as the mainstay, basing itself on the country, ensuring production capacity, moderate imports, and scientific and technological support", and has embarked on a road of food security with Chinese characteristics.
We should store grain in the local area and grain in technology, and continuously improve the comprehensive grain production capacity. General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed many times that the root of ensuring national food security lies in cultivated land, which is the lifeblood of grain production. China has implemented a strict farmland protection system, strictly abided by the red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land, fully implemented the special protection system for permanent basic farmland, and ensured that the permanent basic farmland remained above 1.546 billion mu. Vigorously carry out the construction of high-standard farmland, 800 million mu of high-standard farmland with drought and flood protection, high yield and stable yield have been built, the task of delineating 1.088 billion mu of grain production functional areas and important agricultural product production protection areas has been fully completed, and a number of core grain production bases have been built. While improving the grain production capacity of cultivated land, China has also actively promoted scientific and technological innovation and upgrading of technological equipment. The modern seed industry "chip" continues to innovate and break through, the new round of variety upgrading of major crops has achieved remarkable results, the number of applications for the protection of new plant varieties has ranked first in the world for 3 consecutive years, the fine varieties of major crops have basically achieved full coverage, and the area of independently selected breeding varieties has accounted for more than 95%, realizing the main use of Chinese seeds for Chinese grain. The level of agricultural mechanization has developed rapidly, and the main grain crops have basically realized the whole process of mechanization. The support capacity of agricultural science and technology has been significantly enhanced, and the contribution rate of science and technology has exceeded 60%.
Supplemented by profit, supplemented by righteousness, righteousness and profit are equally important to ensure the enthusiasm for grain production. Grain production should mobilize and protect the "two enthusiasms": first, we must make it profitable for peasants to grow grain, and second, we must let local governments have the enthusiasm to grasp grain production. In order to mobilize these two enthusiasms, China has built a guarantee mechanism of "supplementing it with profit and supplementing it with righteousness". On the one hand, we should constantly improve the policy of supporting grain production, adhere to and improve the policy of the minimum purchase price of rice and wheat, implement the "market-oriented purchase plus subsidy" mechanism for corn and soybeans in the northeast region, continue to increase the scale of rewards for large grain-producing counties, let the peasants make money from farming and growing grain, and mobilize the enthusiasm of the peasants in farming and growing grain and the government to grasp grain; on the other hand, we should continuously strengthen the assessment of the responsibility system of the governor of food security, and establish a mechanism for the main grain producing areas, the production and marketing balance areas, and the main sales areas to jointly assume the responsibility for maintaining national food security. Implement the same responsibility of the party and government for food security, and consolidate the obligations and responsibilities of local party committees and governments to focus on agriculture and grain.
Looking to the future, ensuring food security is a solid foundation for achieving the second centenary goal. This year marks the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and China has comprehensively built a moderately prosperous society, achieved the first centenary goal, opened a new journey of comprehensively building a socialist modern country, and marched toward the second centenary goal. Food security is an important foundation of national security, an important "ballast stone" and a "stabilizer", and it cannot be ignored or relaxed at any time. At present, our country has entered a new stage of development, in the face of the new situation, new opportunities, new challenges, we must better play the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics under the strong leadership of the party, resolutely shoulder the heavy responsibility of national food security, ensure national food security, firmly hold the rice bowl of Chinese in our own hands, and escort the construction of a socialist modern power!
Source: Guangming Network - Theory Channel