Based on its own national conditions and food availability, China has embarked on a road to establishing food security in its own way by implementing the concepts of innovative, coordinated, green, open, and inclusive development, the requirements of high-quality development, and a national food security strategy for a new era.

1. Steadily increasing grain production capacity

– Never crossing the red line for the protection of cultivated land. The Chinese government has implemented an overall plan for land use throughout the country. It strictly controls the occupation of cultivated land, especially high-quality land. It is improving the mechanism for linking the increase and deposit of construction land, and implementing a policy of balancing the occupation and replenishment of arable land, thus drawing a red line for its 120 million hectares of cultivated land. We have implemented a complete and special protection system for permanent basic farmland, and designated more than 103 million hectares of permanent basic farmland. At present, the country has 134.88 million hectares of cultivated land, an increase of more than 4.8 million hectares over 1996. There are more than 117 million hectares sown with grain, an increase of about 4.5 million hectares over 1996. The foundations of grain production have been strengthened.

– Improving the quality of arable land and protecting the environment. China has implemented an overall plan for the development of high-standard farmland, promoted the protection of quantity, quality and ecology of cultivated land, and upgraded medium- and low-yield fields. It has built high-standard farmland with concentrated contiguous land, guaranteed harvests in drought or flood, stable and high yield, and a sound ecology. Since 2011, we have created more than 42.6 million hectares of high-standard farmland, improved the quality of cultivated land by 1 to 2 grades in related zones, increased grain production by about 1,500 kg per hectare, and increased grain production capacity. We have carried out soil testing and formula fertilization, popularized the practice of returning straw to the field, green manure planting, the application of organic fertilizer, soil improvement and other supporting technologies, and steadily improved the quality of cultivated land. We have also implemented cultivated land rehabilitation planning and carried out a pilot system of fallow rotation of cultivated land. We will continue to control the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, gradually eliminate non-point source pollution, and protect the environment.

– Establishing functional areas for grain production and protected areas for the production of important agricultural products. In accordance with the planning of the main functional areas and the configuration of superior agricultural products, China has established functional areas for grain production and protected areas for important agricultural products on the basis of permanent basic farmland. We have designated 60 million hectares of functional areas for grain production, such as rice, wheat and corn, and nearly 15 million hectares of protected areas for the production of important agricultural products such as soybeans and rapeseed. We have strengthened the superior industrial belt of rice, corn and soybeans in Northeast China, and formed a dominant area for the large-scale production of wheat, special corn and high-protein soybeans on the North China Plain. We are building a core area for the production of double-cropping rice and high-quality special wheat in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and we are expanding the scale and improving the quality of high-quality wheat, corn and potatoes in Northwest China. In Southwest China, we are focusing on the cultivation of rice, wheat, corn and potatoes, and increasing the yield of high-quality double-cropping rice and potatoes in Southeast and South China. We will continue to optimize the regional configuration and the combination of production factors, promote agricultural restructuring, enhance the quality and efficiency of agricultural products and market competitiveness, and ensure the effective supply of important agricultural products, especially grain.

– Improving the efficiency of water resource utilization. The Chinese government has planned and built a number of major water conservancy projects for water saving and water supply. We have developed a full range of water-saving irrigation technologies and products that are reliable and complementary to each other. We have vigorously popularized water-saving irrigation technologies such as pipe irrigation, sprinkler irrigation and micro-irrigation, and promoted the integration of water and fertilizer and other agronomy water-saving technologies. We will further speed up the installation of support facilities and modern and efficient water-saving reconstruction in irrigation districts, standardize and improve the quality of small-scale irrigation facilities, and realize the scientific and efficient utilization of water resources in agricultural production.

2. Cultivating and arousing the enthusiasm of grain planting

– Guaranteeing farming incomes. Grain production makes an essential contribution to feeding the people; it also provides employment to farmers. China has a huge agricultural population, and it will be a gradual process to reduce the agricultural population through urbanization, during the course of which the employment and income of farmers must be guaranteed. In order to develop the rural economy and society in an all-round way, China has abolished the animal husbandry tax, pig slaughtering tax, tax on agricultural and forestry specialties and other taxes, especially the agricultural tax, which had existed in China for 2,600 years and was abolished in 2006. All these efforts have fundamentally reduced the burden on farmers. We will gradually adjust and improve the grain price formation mechanism and agricultural support and protection policies, and improve farmers' ability to resist natural and market risks through the implementation of land fertility protection subsidies for cultivated land and subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and equipment. We will guarantee the basic income of farmers, cultivate their enthusiasm for growing grain, and ensure the sustainable development of agriculture.

– Improving the mode of production and operation. China has consolidated the basic management system in rural areas, adhered to a two-tier management system based on household contract management and combined with unification and division, and aroused the enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of farmers in grain production. We have invested a great effort in cultivating new-type agricultural business entities and socialized service organizations, promoted moderate-scale operations, and guided small-scale farmers onto the track of modern agriculture, gradually forming a three-dimensional compound agricultural management system based on family management, with cooperation as the link, and social services as the support. At present there are nearly 600,000 family farms, 2.17 million farmers' cooperatives, and 370,000 social service organizations in China. The problems of "who farms the land" and "how to farm the land" have been effectively solved, and the efficiency of agricultural production has significantly improved.

3. Innovating and improving the food market system

– Building a pattern of multiple market players. China is furthering reform of state-owned grain enterprises, encouraging the development of a mixed ownership economy, promoting cross-regional integration of state-owned grain enterprises, and creating backbone grain enterprise groups. We will transform and upgrade the grain industry, cultivate large transnational grain groups, support the development of small and medium-sized grain enterprises, and foster a market environment for fair competition. We have actively guided multiple players into the market, and the proportion of market-based procurement has been increasing. A network of diversified grain purchasers has gradually taken shape.

– Improving the grain trading system. China has built a standardized and unified national electronic grain trading platform, forming a national grain trading system with the platform as the center and provincial (autonomous regional, municipal) grain trading platforms as the support. The functions of macro-control and grain circulation have continuously improved. There are more than 500 grain commodity and logistics markets across the country. Grain futures trading cover major grain varieties such as wheat, corn, rice, and soybeans, and the scale is expanding.

– Steadily improving services in the grain market. The government has actively guided various localities to develop a variety of grain retail methods, and improved the supply network of "safe grain and oil" in urban and rural areas. Grain e-commerce and new forms of retail business are in good shape. We are building platforms for cooperation in grain production and marketing, and encouraging production and marketing areas to strengthen strategic cooperation at government level. In 2018, we organized 3,935 grain fairs of all kinds, with a transaction volume of nearly 136.27 million tons and a value of 231.9 billion yuan. In 2018 and 2019, China held China Grain Trade Conferences with an intended purchase and sale of more than 60 million tons, pushing grain production and marketing cooperation to a new level.