The responsibility of local government should be emphasized in ensuring food security.

The issue of food is the top priority of the world, both at all times and at home and abroad. China, as the most populous country in the world, food security is particularly important. As early as 1994, the central government began to implement the "rice bag" provincial governor responsibility system, requiring the administrative heads of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to be responsible for the balance of grain supply and demand and the relative stability of grain prices in the region. Since the beginning of the new century, although China's grain production has made great achievements in 11 consecutive increases, the current and future situation of China's food security is becoming more and more complex and there are more and more challenges to be dealt with. From a strategic point of view, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have accelerated the revision and improvement of the system of responsibility for grain governors. On January 22, 2015, the State Council issued some opinions on establishing and improving the responsibility system of provincial governors for food security. On November 12, 2015, the General Office of the State Council issued the measures for the assessment of the responsibility system of provincial governors for food security. For its spirit and content, it is necessary for government departments at all levels, industry main bodies and even the whole society to seriously study, deeply understand and implement.

It is necessary to fully understand the complexity of the situation facing China's food security in the new era and the arduousness of dealing with challenges. Generally speaking, the complexity of the situation facing China's food security in the new era and the arduousness of dealing with the challenges are mainly shown in the following aspects:

First, at present, China is in the middle and late stage of industrialization and the middle stage of urbanization, and the gap between workers and farmers between urban and rural areas is very large, which is affected by comparative benefits, employment opportunities and other factors. grain production and agricultural development of funds, land, labor and other basic elements will still be in a state of net outflow, and the problems of who will invest, who will farm land, and who will grow grain will become increasingly prominent.

Second, China is speeding up the construction of a comprehensive pattern of opening up to the outside world. Domestic small farmers, which account for 46% of the total number of small farmers in the world, will bear the increasing pressure of external international competition. International experience tells us that the competitiveness of small-scale agriculture will continue to decline under the open system, which means that China's food producers and industrial stakeholders will inevitably face more and more international pressure in the future.

Third, the global climate is warming, extreme weather is becoming more and more frequent, the basic capacity of food production and the ability of disaster prevention and mitigation are weak, and ecological resources and environment are facing unprecedented pressure. At present, most of the grain fields in China are still medium-and low-yield fields, and the effective irrigation rate is only about 55%. The cultivated land is decreasing, the water resources are more tense, the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is very low, and the resource pressure and ecological pressure on grain production are increasing day by day.

In the face of the increasingly complex situation and more and more challenges, in order to ensure China's food security in the new era, we must improve the management ability and macro-control level of governments at all levels as soon as possible. The introduction of the assessment method of the food security provincial governor responsibility system by the General Office of the State Council is timely and of great significance.

We should give full play to the important role of the government as a "visible hand" in ensuring food security in the new period. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the central government has proposed that the market should be allowed to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources.

As everyone knows, the problem of food security is not a problem that can be completely solved by the market through the allocation of resources, and many food security problems are precisely caused by market failure. In short, food security has a strong public, social and political nature. It is precisely because of its public characteristics that food security cannot be realized by the main body of the market; it is precisely because of its social characteristics that food security has attracted so much attention; and it is precisely because of its political characteristics that China imports a little more. There will be a voice of China's grain threat theory in the international community. In fact, while the central government proposed that the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources at the 18th CPC National Congress, it also clearly requires that the government should play a good role in service and regulation. Therefore, under the new situation in the new period, in order to give full play to the important role of the government as a "visible hand" in ensuring food security, the General Office of the State Council issued a timely assessment method for the responsibility system of provincial governors for food security.

It is necessary to profoundly understand the spirit and requirements of the assessment method of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security in China in the new period. In recent years, with the continuous increase of domestic grain production, some places have begun to relax grain production, ignore grain circulation, and rely excessively on the central government, and the sense of responsibility for safeguarding national food security needs to be further strengthened. All localities and departments should fully understand the extreme importance and complexity of ensuring food security, further enhance their awareness of the overall situation and responsibility, and put the protection of food security in a prominent position in economic and social development as the basic task of ensuring people's livelihood. Unswerving. In order to speed up the construction of the national food security system and further clarify the responsibility of provincial governments for maintaining national food security, the General Office of the State Council has formulated a complete assessment mechanism, quantitative assessment indicators and corresponding rewards and punishments in the assessment measures, which indicates that China's food security work has entered a new stage. It is of great significance to realize the strategic goal of national food security of "basic self-sufficiency of grain and absolute security of rations" under the complex situation in the new period.