The balance of occupation and compensation of cultivated land should not only look at the numbers.

Due to the impulse and inertia of extensive land utilization accumulated for a long time, coupled with imperfect system, imperfect mechanism, loopholes in supervision and other reasons, the balance of occupation and compensation is distorted in some places, even into a digital balance game, which makes it difficult to ensure grain output and maintain sustainable agricultural development. The situation of cultivated land protection in China is still very serious. We must strictly adhere to the requirement of "taking one to supplement one, and making up for the superior" to ensure that the quantity and quality of supplementary cultivated land are in place, and we cannot only maintain the balance of numbers.

When it comes to the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation, a group of the latest figures from the second national land survey are unforgettable: in the 13 years from 1996 to 2009, China's five southeast coastal provinces alone reduced paddy field by 17.98 million mu, equivalent to subtracting the paddy field area of Fujian Province.

After the implementation of the newly revised Land Management Law in 1999, the policy of balancing cultivated land occupation and compensation has been implemented. More than 10 years have passed, although we emphasize sticking to the red line of cultivated land, there are still many problems in the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation, some of which are even shocking.

Recently, the central leadership has given important instructions on the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation, demanding that more powerful measures be taken to strengthen the supervision of the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation, resolutely prevent the problems of insufficient quantity and quality of supplement in the balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation, and resolutely prevent the phenomena of occupying more to compensate for less, occupying more to compensate for inferior, and occupying paddy fields to compensate for dry land. This important instruction not only puts forward clear requirements for the current balance of cultivated land occupation and compensation according to laws and regulations, but also points out the direction for implementing the strictest cultivated land protection system.

Over the years, due to the impulse and inertia of extensive land utilization accumulated for a long time, coupled with various reasons such as imperfect system, imperfect mechanism and loopholes in supervision, the balance of occupation and compensation has been distorted in some places and even turned into a digital balance game. This kind of distorted digital balance modifies the "face" of some local statistics and covers up the "lining" of the decline of cultivated land quality, which is quite different from the requirement of double balance of quantity and quality of "occupying one to make up for one, dominant to make up for excellence".

This kind of situation is mainly manifested in two aspects: urban expansion and rural land reduction. In recent years, urban expansion has occupied a large amount of land, and most cities are located in plain areas or areas with better soil conditions, resulting in more than half of urban expansion occupied by cultivated land. According to data from the Ministry of Land and Resources, from the completion of the first national land survey in 1996 to the completion of the second national land survey in 2009, urban land increased by 41.78 million mu, occupying basically cultivated land. In terms of replenishing cultivated land, unused land available for reclamation in some big cities and megacities is close to exhaustion, and it is very difficult to replenish cultivated land in some places. In order to achieve the balance of occupation and compensation, many places are occupied near to compensate for the distance, dominant to compensate for the inferior, occupied paddy field to compensate for dry land. Such a balance of occupation and compensation, even if the figures are balanced, is difficult to ensure food production and maintain sustainable agricultural development.

In rural areas, in addition to the promotion of urban boundaries and the expansion and occupation of land in parks, there are also problems such as the reduction of cultivated land caused by extensive internal construction and land index trading, and the predominance of advantages and disadvantages. Some traditional agricultural areas unilaterally regard the construction of new houses as a sign of new rural construction, occupying cultivated land to build convents; or in order to obtain land transaction indicators in the balance of occupation and compensation, farmers are concentrated upstairs, some even let farmers in remote mountainous areas enter the city, and the original rural residential land is reclaimed as cultivated land as an indicator for transaction. However, it takes a long time for such land to become cultivated land, and some of them cannot be cultivated, which can only be reflected in statistics.

Cultivated land is the most precious resource. The basic national conditions of less cultivated land per capita, low cultivated land quality and insufficient cultivated land reserve resources in China will not change for a long time. In terms of per capita cultivated land, China's per capita cultivated land was 1.59 mu in 1996 and dropped to 1.52 mu in 2009, much lower than the world's per capita cultivated land level of 3.38 mu. In terms of cultivated land quality, a considerable part of forest land, grassland and sloping land in the existing cultivated land need to be gradually withdrawn from ecological construction, and a considerable part is polluted by heavy metals or unsuitable for cultivation due to mining collapse and groundwater overexploitation. Such national conditions and agricultural conditions determine that the situation of cultivated land protection in our country is still very severe. We must strictly adhere to the requirements of "occupying one to supplement one, and making up for the superior" to ensure that the quantity and quality of supplementary cultivated land are in place, and we cannot only maintain the balance of figures.