Not long ago, in Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province, there was a case of illegal excavation of black soil, 90,000 square meters of cultivated land was destroyed, and the originally flat land showed mottled "scars", which was heart-wrenching. There is no possibility of bargaining on the red line of cultivated land, and we must not only keep the red line of the quantity of 1.8 billion mu of arable land, but also keep the quality red line of fertile land. There is no room for negotiation on agricultural land, land violations must be severely punished, and "long teeth" measures must always be on the string.
In Futai Village, Shahezi Town, Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province, the large pit on the stolen black soil is like a "sore scar" of the earth. Photo by Ma Zhiyao (Xinhua News Agency)
In this case of illegal excavation of black soil, someone negotiated with the villagers to transfer the land in the name of improving the land, and then used large machinery to extract the soil. In the context of the separation of the three rights of contracted land, neither landowners, contractors nor operators have the right to illegally dig up black soil, illegally take soil, and destroy the cultivated layer. It is worth noting that the theft and sale of black soil is a huge profit, the cost of digging and mining is low, and criminals often use the weak supervision period at night to go to the farmland to dig illegally, and then sell it at a price of 20 yuan per cubic meter, which is mostly used for urban greening.
Farmland protection is not an easy task. China is in the stage of rapid urbanization, and the demand for construction land in various places is very large, but some places have started the idea of cultivating land. Some local governments regard cultivated land as the "Meat of Tang Monks" for construction land, fail to fulfill their responsibility to protect cultivated land, and perfunctorily assume responsibility for the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation, and there is a phenomenon of taking advantage of the superior and compensating for the inferior. What's more, some market entities have engaged in illegal activities on cultivated land. For example, after transferring land from peasants, they engage in "non-farming" of cultivated land, and they either build large sheds and build private estates on cultivated land, or they steal black soil and illegally take soil.
In Futai Village, Shahezi Town, Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province, workers backfill stolen black soil. Photo by Ma Zhiyao (Xinhua News Agency)
The northeast region is one of the three major black soil belts in the world and the most important grain-producing area in China. Black soil is the most fertile soil, in the words of the common people, "chopsticks also sprout.". Black soil is called "the giant panda in the cultivated land", and it takes hundreds of years to form a 1 cm thick layer of black soil. However, since the large-scale reclamation in the 1950s, the black soil in Northeast China has been in a state of high-intensity utilization, with heavy land use and light land cultivation, unreasonable farming system, and long-term neglect of soil and water conservation, resulting in thinning of the black soil layer and a decline in organic matter content. At present, black land is facing a situation of "quantity reduction and quality reduction", which brings potential risks to the sustainable development of agriculture.
In recent years, the protection of the black soil in northeast China has been increasing. In February 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Finance issued the Action Plan for Conservation Tillage in Northeast China, proposing that by 2025, the area of conservation tillage implementation will reach 140 million mu, accounting for 70% of the total cultivated land area in suitable areas in Northeast China. This is a crucial step in farmland conservation, but it is still not enough. The protection of cultivated land is not only an agronomic measure, not only to encourage and promote, but also to have rigid constraints, but also to have legal means to prevent and punish the indiscriminate occupation, abuse and destruction of cultivated land.
Heilongjiang Rongjun Farm of beidahuang Group in Nenjiang City, Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province. Photo by Lin Jinchun (Zhongjing Vision)
Let land violators know that it hurts. At present, the national level has not yet issued black land protection laws and regulations, "Heilongjiang Province Farmland Protection Regulations" as a local regulations, mentioning that it is forbidden to mine and take soil in cultivated land, but the lack of corresponding penalty rules, from the perspective of duties, law enforcement, etc., authoritative and mandatory is not enough, affecting the black land protection work. The destruction of cultivated land takes many forms, and only by weaving a perfect legal network and making it pay an not easy cost can the black industrial chain be cut off at the same time upstream and downstream, forming a strong deterrent.
Land users should learn to use it. Regularly monitor the quality of cultivated land, encourage farmers to cultivate the land with real money and silver, restrict destructive cultivation of land with copper walls and iron walls, give economic compensation to areas where soil protection is implemented, stimulate their enthusiasm for combining use and nutrition, improve soil strength, and make them gain more economic benefits from the protection of black soil. The protection and utilization of black land must have a carrier to undertake tasks, and new types of business entities such as large grain growers and farmers' cooperatives have a strong willingness to protect black land, and they also have the conditions to cultivate and fertilize black land, and they can be prioritized.
To protect farmland is to protect ourselves and our children. In the tide of urbanization, farmers can be non-agricultural and part-time, but cultivated land cannot be non-agricultural and impoverished. At present, it is particularly necessary to strengthen the special protection of the black land in the northeast and let the hard measures of "long teeth" determine the future of the black land.
Source: Economic Daily