Red Star News:

The initiative to build high-standard farmland is a major project for ensuring China's national food security. In recent years, we have made significant progress on this front. Could you elaborate on our achievements and describe future plans to enhance the mechanisms for the development, acceptance inspection, and management and protection of high-standard farmland ? Thank you.

Han Jun:

Mr. Zhang will answer this question.

Zhang Xingwang:

Thank you for your question. High-standard farmland development is vital for ensuring national food security and directly impacts the livelihoods of rural residents. It is both a livelihood project and one that has strong public support. Mr. Han has already provided an overview of our progress in this regard. The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to this project, which has also attracted widespread public attention. Under the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the directives from the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, various levels of agricultural and rural departments, supported by related departments and agencies, have intensified their efforts and made significant progress. By the end of last year, China had built over 1 billion mu of high-standard farmland, more than 10 million kilometers of field irrigation and drainage channels and over 27 million small-scale farmland water conservancy facilities. These efforts have significantly improved farmland's disaster resilience, ensuring stable production even during severe disasters and increasing yields under normal conditions. This has contributed substantially to the country's ability to maintain grain production at over 1.3 trillion jin (650 billion kilograms) for nine consecutive years. This year, the country has substantially increased investment standards for high-standard farmland, supporting further improvements.

The statistics introduced just now show that the development of high-standard farmland indeed involves numerous aspects and long processes, and covers extensive areas. To ensure the quality of this project, we have meticulously implemented a working mechanism with the central government responsible for overall planning, provincial-level governments assuming overall responsibility, city and county governments ensuring implementation, and the public participating. In collaboration with relevant departments, we have refined institutional standards, strictly focused on task implementation, and ensured its quality. The third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed to enhance the mechanisms for the development, acceptance inspection, and management and protection of high-standard farmland. We will adhere to the principle of putting quality first while attaching equal importance to quantity and quality, take firm and stringent measures, and do everything possible to ensure the quality of farmland development, truly achieving the goal whereby every acre developed is an acre successfully completed. We will focus our efforts in three main areas:

First, we will strengthen development management throughout the entire process. We will reasonably determine the development standards for high-standard farmland in different regions and types, guide various localities to further optimize layouts, clarify development priorities, carry out solid preliminary work such as project design, strictly assume local responsibilities for engineering quality management, and rigorously control quality at every stage, including selection, bidding, materials, construction and acceptance inspection.

Second, we will regularly conduct supervision and inspection. In the near future, the MARA will initiate a quality review and special rectification campaign for high-standard farmland development projects, focusing on issues such as irrigation facilities that are not electrified, not supplied with water, or not functioning properly. We will organize local inspections to identify and categorize issues that need rectifying. This year, we will also conduct random quality checks of projects nationwide on a regular basis. Any issues discovered will be assigned to local authorities for firm rectification, and those responsible will be held accountable in accordance with laws and regulations. Cases suspected of violating criminal law will be decisively transferred to judicial authorities for handling.

Third, we will implement multiple measures to strengthen post-development management and protection. We will collaborate with relevant departments to further refine the relevant systems, urging localities to synchronize plans regarding the parties responsible for management and protection, mechanisms, and supporting measures during the early stages of high-standard farmland development project planning. This will clarify the responsibilities and standards for farmland management and protection, ensuring that the post-development measures are effectively implemented and preventing any gaps or failures in our management. These efforts aim to reverse the tendency in some areas to focus on development while neglecting management, ensuring solid development and better management. Thank you.