Xing Huina:

Thank you. Now the floor is open for questions. Please identify your media outlet before raising your questions. 

Xinhua News Agency:

Food security has always been a matter of concern for the whole society. General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed to implement a new food security strategy at the central rural work conference in 2013. What new measures have been adopted over the past 10 years to ensure the food supply through our own efforts? Thank you. 

Deng Xiaogang:

Thank you for your question. It has always been a top priority in state governance to ensure enough food to feed China's 1.4 billion population. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has attached great importance to food security, establishing a national strategy on food security and introducing a new vision on food security. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out on many occasions that food security is among a country's most fundamental interests. He has given important instructions on this issue, charting the course and providing fundamental guidelines for China's efforts to ensure food security.

Over the past 10 years, all localities and departments have implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council; placed ensuring an effective supply of grain and other important farm products as a priority in their work concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers; and have enhanced policy support, and stepped up efforts to consolidate and improve grain production capacity, thus securing food supply for the Chinese people. Our work has mainly followed three "two-pronged approaches."

First, implementing the two-pronged grain production strategy based on farmland management and technological application. We have focused our work on access to arable land and seeds so as to lay a solid foundation for grain production. On the one hand, the agricultural infrastructure, high-standard farmland in particular, has been greatly improved. We have ensured the area of farmland remains above the redline of 120 million hectares; confirmed the establishment of functional zones for grain production and protected areas for the production of major agricultural products, totaling 70.53 million hectares, in specific provinces, counties, or even land plots; constructed 60 million hectares of high-standard farmland; advanced farmland irrigation and water conservation facilities; and launched the project of conserving the black soil, which is dubbed the "giant panda" in arable land. On the other hand, the agricultural science and technology innovation capacity, with focus on the breeding of superior crop varieties, has also been greatly improved. We have bred and applied a batch of new varieties with breakthroughs, featuring high yield, high quality, resilience to many diseases and insects, and wide adaptability to different growing environments. We have basically realized full coverage of superior crop varieties across the country. We also stepped up efforts to build three national seed cultivation and production centers, as well as 216 seed production counties and regional centers for cultivating superior crop varieties. The country's independently cultivated varieties now account for more than 95% of the total crop planting area, making it a reality that Chinese crops are planted mainly with Chinese seeds. 

Second, working to keep farmers and local governments motivated. We have built a mechanism to ensure farmers enjoy benefits from growing grains and local governments fulfill their obligation in grain production. On the one hand, we have enhanced the work to guarantee the earnings of grain growers; steadily raised the minimum purchase prices of rice and wheat; improved the subsidy policies for rice, corn, and soybean growers; and realized full coverage of full cost insurance and planting income insurance for three staple crops (rice, wheat, and corn) in major production provinces and counties. We have stabilized expectations through pricing support, guaranteed costs by income subsidies, lowered risks through the expansion of insurance coverage, and increased income through operating services, thus enabling grain growers to have profits and earn more money. Especially in recent two years, with regards to rising grain-growing costs caused by increasing prices of agricultural supplies, the central authorities have issued one-time subsidies to grain growers three times, all totaling 50 billion yuan. On the other hand, we have implemented the policy that the Party and the government hold the same responsibilities for guaranteeing food security. We have formulated related regulations and performance evaluation measures, and clarified the responsibilities of local Party committees and governments on food security. At the same time, we have assigned the targets and tasks of annual grain production to each province and promoted the main grain-producing areas, main grain marketing areas, and areas with balanced grain production and marketing to share responsibilities and obligations. 

Third, advancing commercial services for farmers and the mechanization of grain production. This two-pronged approach aims to improve the grain operation efficiency and lower grain production costs. To promote commercial services, we have accelerated the building of a convenient and efficient system of commercial services featuring multiple parties and complementary functions; and advanced unified prevention and control for crop diseases and pests, agent plowing, planting, harvesting, and storage; allowed farmers to have access to advanced and appropriate varieties, technologies, equipment, and organization forms; and cultivated more than 950,000 commercialized agriculture organizations, with services covering 113.33 million hectares of farmland and over 78 million farming households. To promote the mechanization of grain production, we have focused our work on improving the whole-process mechanization of grain production and making breakthroughs on weak links like mechanized transplanting and the throwing of rice seedlings. The comprehensive mechanization rates of crop plowing, planting, and harvesting for three major crops - wheat, corn, and rice - have exceeded 97%, 90%, and 85%, respectively. Agricultural machinery has contributed remarkably to grain yield increase. 

In the next phase, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will implement the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping, follow the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and increase input and support to step up grain production capacity. We will ensure stable production and sufficient supply domestically amid uncertainties in the external environment, so that the country's food security always rest in our own hands. This year, under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee and through efforts from all sectors of society, we have secured a bumper harvest of summer wheat, laying a solid foundation for a bumper harvest throughout the year. Thank you.