CCTV:
Food safety has been a great concern to the public over the past years. In particular, the people want to be assured that domestic formula milk is safe for our kids to drink. My question is for Mr. Han Changfu. What measures have the government taken to ensure the safety of agricultural products and to promote the sound development of the domestic diary industry? What progress has been made? Thank you.
Han Changfu:
The people want safe food. That's natural. The agricultural department shoulders the responsibility of ensuring the safety of agricultural products. Many measures have been taken in this regard.
In the past five years, we conducted food sampling annually. More than 96 percent of the sampled products from the farming, husbandry and fishery sectors met the quality standard. In the first half of this year, the ratio went up to 97.6 percent.
But of course, there are problems to be solved. One is the small-scale producers, who pose a great threat to food safety, and the other is law enforcement, which needs to be further improved and intensified.
The production process and regulation of agricultural products are crucial to ensuring product safety. There were three notable changes in the regulation field.
Firstly, sound systems have been established. In recent years, we have revised over 6,000 items of pesticides and veterinary drugs residual limited standards, and over 5,000 agricultural industrial standards. Powerful enforcement and operations will be ensured under these standards.
Secondly, supervision of farm products safety has been strengthened since the 18th CPC National Congress. We have built up a team from all levels to oversee quality safety of agricultural products. The supervision is becoming even more effective.
Thirdly, responsibilities have been clarified. We have urged the local governments to perform their administrative responsibilities and operational entities to fulfill their primary responsibilities.
The dairy industry also produces milk powder. The quality of milk powder produced by China has improved a lot over the last five years compared with that produced eight years ago. Several China's mainland milk powder brands have been certificated by the EU, and some have entered the Hong Kong market. Specifically, improvements have been made in three aspects. First, dairy farming has been scaled up. Second, the milking process has been mechanized. Mechanization has been achieved in large-scale farms. Third, production, supervision, and product standards of the dairy industry are in place. The dairy industry is a relatively modern one with a long and complete industrial chain, so its regulatory framework is developing from strength to strength.
All in all, now we have undergone a great change and laid a sound foundation. We have the confidence to revitalize China's dairy industry, and let our children be able to enjoy high-quality and safe milk produced in China. Thank you.
China Business News:
I have two questions. First, I would like to ask Mr. Han Changfu: the "No. 1 Central Document" in 2013 proposed that China should complete the registration for rural land contract rights and management rights in five years. And just now you mentioned that the rights covering 78 percent of the land has been made clear. During the process, are there any experiences and what are the difficulties? How will we handle the remaining 22 percent? And my second question is to Mr. Han Jun: Anhui, Hubei and Sichuan yesterday launched a minimum purchase price plan for medium and late rice. According to the plan, the minimum purchase price of 50 kilograms of medium and late indica and japonica was reduced by 2 yuan and 5 yuan respectively. The minimum purchase price of wheat was the same as 2016, but 3 yuan lower for early indica. So, what are the considerations behind such adjustment? Will there be further reforms in the future?
Han Changfu:
I will answer the first question. In relation to registering and certifying the rights to the contracted use of land in rural areas, I have stressed that it is a basic work. What kind of basic work is it? It is a basic work on rural reform, on the stability of rural land contract relations, and on the policy of separating land ownership rights, contract rights, and management rights for contracted rural land.
Primarily, land is collective and the form of ownership cannot be changed. Meanwhile, land is contracted by households and the contracting right cannot be changed, either. If this basic work can be done well, it will be of great significance for us to further improve the reform of rural land contract relations. President Xi Jinping said that, the main line of rural reform is still to manage well the relationship between farmers and the land.
The central document put forward outlines that it will take us five years to complete the work of registering and certifying the rights to the contracted use of land in rural areas. Namely by 2018, we will basically complete the work. The schedule may be postponed for some remote areas, ethnic minority areas and larger areas. Currently, five provinces have basically completed the work, and the country has completed 78 percent of the work.
When talking about experience, I would say there's a lot available. However, I think the most important experience may be summed up by the following two points. First, there is the attention of the leaders. Now, Party committees and governments at all levels, down to county Party committees and governments, are attaching importance to this matter, and organizing and implementing in accordance with the central government's policies, and then giving support in providing the best working conditions, in particular, leadership in regard to in-depth grass-roots research, so that the leaders can understand the situation and be able to resolve problems and conflicts. This may be a very important experience.
A second element involves relying on the public. It is a good thing for farmers when the central government issues them with the registry certificates confirming their rights to contracted farmland. This soothes farmers' nerves and they become active. You issue a certificate to one farmer, give him confidence that a land is contracted to him for a long time, and then he would like to expand, and move on to other places and businesses. Even when a new entity occupies his land, the original holder will still rest assured that all is well. We have to rely on the public to solve problems, so that in everything you should start from the realities, and rely on the public of a county, a township and a village to carry out the land contract work efficiently. In such a big country, with so many farmers and so much land to be cultivated, there are no huge clashes of interests and social instability. I think these two points are very important.
Han Jun:
The question you asked concerns a major reform carried out over the past few years. Generally speaking, we want to offer different policies to different products and reform the pricing system step by step.
The price of domestic corn has remained high, so Chinese processing factories and animal feed producers are inclined to use foreign products. From 2013 to 2016, they purchased 100 billion kilograms of foreign sorghum, barley, distillers grains and cassava to replace domestic corns in production.
This resulted in a growing stockpile of policy-supported corns. In view of this situation, in 2016, the government decided to reform the pricing system to let the market determine the price. Corn farmers are now subsidized directly, so as to guarantee their basic earnings.
Things are different concerning wheat and rice, which are a staple food.
Regarding wheat, supply and demand has remained basically balanced, with a gap of 2 million tons last year and a surplus of 5 million or 6 million tons this year. Because of the sound balance, the stock-piled policy-supported wheat can be auctioned at a price basically the same as the price the government purchased it - therefore not requiring a government subsidy. Wheat has a special advantage. It can be stored for a long time.
Regarding rice, the government will take actions this year too. The rice supply is increasing faster than demand. What's worse, it can't be stocked for a long time like wheat, and its industrial chain is not as long as for corn. Therefore, the pressure on stockpiles is mounting. We need to find a solution to reduce the stock of policy-supported rice.
This year, the prices of early indica rice, middle-season and late indica rice and japonica rice have been revised down 0.06 yuan, 0.04 yuan and 0.1 yuan per kilogram respectively. This shows that, on the whole, the supply of rice exceeds demand. As required in this year's No. 1 Central Document, we will take constructive, steady steps to reform the pricing mechanism for grain and other important agricultural products. We will also continue and improve the minimum purchase price policy for rice and wheat, making reasonable adjustments to these prices, to enable parity between prices. The reform should reflect the market demand under the basic policy framework. Therefore, these measures should play a vital role in maintaining farmer's enthusiasm to grow grains, pushing forward grain production and increasing farmers' income. Thanks.
Hu Kaihong:
Today's press conference will end here. Thanks to the spokesperson. Thank you everyone.
By Li Xiaohua, Wang Qian, Huang Shan, Chen Xia, Zhou Jing, Li Huiru, Li Jingrong, Zhang Rui, Wu Jin, Yuan Fang, Cui Can, Zhang Jiaqi, Zhang Liying, Layne Flower, Christopher Georgiou, Geoffrey Murray