A few days ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the National Cultivated Land Quality Grade Bulletin in 2019, which announced the current status of cultivated land quality across the country and different regions, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions for cultivated land quality construction in response to the obstacles of cultivated land soil, and guided localities to strengthen cultivated land quality construction according to local conditions. The "Communiqué" divided the country's 2.023 billion mu of cultivated land into grades one to ten in order from high to low, with an average grade of 4.76, an increase of 0.35 grades from 2014.
    According to the "Communiqué", the area of arable land evaluated as the first to third grade is 632 million mu, accounting for 31.24% of the total arable land; the area of arable land evaluated as the fourth to sixth grade is 947 million mu, accounting for 46.81% of the total arable land; the evaluation is seven The area of cultivated land up to the tenth grade is 444 million mu, accounting for 21.95% of the total cultivated area. The “Communiqué” analyzed the quality of cultivated land in nine regions including Northeast China, Inner Mongolia and along the Great Wall, Huanghuaihai, Loess Plateau, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, southwestern China, southern China, Gansu-Xinjiang, and Qinghai-Tibet, as well as the main obstacles affecting agricultural production. Suggestions for farmland construction, soil fertility improvement, and soil fertility measures.
    In 2014, the former Ministry of Agriculture issued the "Communiqué on the Quality Grades of Cultivated Land in the Country" for the first time. Since 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has initiated this round of survey and evaluation of the quality of cultivated land throughout the country, and completed the classification of national cultivated land quality in 2019. The agricultural land quality construction expert guidance group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and experts from relevant scientific research, teaching, and extension units conducted demonstrations on the evaluation results of national cultivated land quality. The expert group believes that the evaluation methods are well-founded, the data sources are accurate, and the results are in line with the actual conditions of the localities, and objectively reflect the effectiveness of the Party Central Committee and the State Council's vigorous implementation of the strategy of "reserving grain on the ground and storing grain on technology".
    In recent years, the agricultural and rural departments have coordinated the implementation of cultivated land quality protection and improvement actions with relevant departments, and carried out high-standard farmland construction, protection and utilization of black land in the northeast, comprehensive utilization of straw, rotation and fallow, reduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and replacement of chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers. Deep loosening and deep ploughing of agricultural machinery, resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure, etc., adopting comprehensive measures to improve soil fertility, effectively promoting the protection of cultivated land quality.
    Cultivated land quality grade evaluation is a basic, long-term and public welfare work in the construction and management of cultivated land quality. The results of the survey and evaluation of cultivated land quality grades released this time will be the assessment of the provincial governor’s responsibility system for food security and the goal of the provincial government’s responsibility for cultivated land protection. Assess and compile the natural resource liability sheet to provide scientific basis for the quality of cultivated land; guide local areas to carry out high-standard farmland construction, degraded farmland management, delineate permanent basic farmland, carry out farmland replenishment balance and supplement farmland quality acceptance, etc.; enhance the public's acceptance of farmland recognize the importance of quality protection and create a good atmosphere for the whole society to participate in the construction and protection of cultivated land quality.
Note: The news comes from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.