China's agriculture should reduce its burden and the current food security situation is very good.

On the afternoon of March 6, at a press conference held at the third session of the 12th National people's Congress, Yu Xinrong, vice minister of agriculture, answered questions raised by Chinese and foreign reporters on "promoting reform and innovation and speeding up the construction of modern agriculture."

The current food security situation is very good.

Yu Xinrong said: the current food security situation in China is very good. Last year, the total grain output and per unit yield reached new highs. At the same time, China's grain imports are constantly increasing, with a total import volume of about 100 million tons last year. More than 70 per cent of the total imports were soybeans, reaching 71.4 million tons. Grain imports were only 19.52 million tons, accounting for only 3.2 per cent of the total grain output of the year. Among them, the imports of corn and wheat declined, while only rice and some industrial grains such as sorghum and barley increased. He analyzed that grain imports are mainly due to the fact that grain prices in the international market are generally lower than those in the domestic market. In addition, the diversification of domestic food demand is becoming more and more obvious, not only satisfied with food rations, but also increasing industrial and other grain consumption.

"We have firm confidence in achieving the goal of mainly containing Chinese grain in our rice bowls." Yu Xinrong said: in the future, food security will highlight the "two guarantees" and do a good job in the "two mention" work. The "two guarantees" should, first of all, protect the enthusiasm of the broad masses of farmers in farming and growing grain, so as to make grain production a profession that is respected and can become rich; second, it is necessary to protect the enthusiasm of local governments in major grain-producing areas to attach importance to agriculture and to increase support to major grain-producing areas. First of all, it is necessary to enhance the ability of basic grain security, maintain the red line of cultivated land, plan permanent basic farmland, and build a number of high-standard farmland with drought and waterlogging to ensure the storage of grain in the land; at the same time, it is necessary to enhance the supporting capacity of science and technology, speed up the development of modern seed industry, promote the popularization and application of agricultural science and technology, and realize the storage of grain in technology.

Agricultural restructuring gives prominence to ecological protection

In response to a reporter from the Economic Daily about the sustainable development and structural adjustment of agriculture, Yu Xinrong said: although China's agriculture has achieved bumper harvests in successive years, it is under tremendous pressure in terms of the mode of production and agricultural structure. agricultural natural resources have reached the point of serious overdraft, and agriculture needs to reduce its burden. Therefore, to promote agricultural modernization, we must put the transformation mode and structural adjustment in an important position.

Yu Xinrong said that special emphasis should be placed on ecological protection in structural adjustment. The Ministry of Agriculture will rapidly launch and continuously implement the battle to control agricultural non-point source pollution throughout the country, launch a zero-growth action on the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and strive to achieve zero growth in the total use of pesticides and fertilizers by 2020; establish a mechanism including agricultural film treatment, manure treatment and plastic film recovery; explore the minimum guarantee red line system for agricultural water use; and launch the implementation of the Northeast Black Land Protection Project and the plan for sustainable agricultural development in the northwest arid areas.

"this change of mode and restructuring is a decision made by the state in co-ordinating both international and domestic markets and resources, taking into account various factors such as production, market, ecology, and so on. China's grain output has been stable at more than 1.1 trillion jin for four consecutive years, giving more room for structural adjustment to solve some outstanding problems facing agriculture at present. we will promote agriculture to shift from resource consumption, chemical fertilizer and pesticide input, and ecological environment to equal emphasis on output, quality and efficiency, intensification, economy, and innovation. " Yu Xinrong said.

According to reports, structural adjustment should not only optimize the planting and breeding structure, speed up the development of animal husbandry, but also optimize the quality structure, so as to lay the foundation for the quality and safety of agricultural products. In the restructuring, the Ministry of Agriculture will increase the cultivation of new types of agricultural operators, increase the intensity of financial insurance to support agriculture, start the whole process of agricultural socialized services, continue to promote the innovation of the system and mechanism of the seed industry, and increase the green mode of increasing grain production. Mechanization of major crops throughout the process.

Prudent promotion of transgene

Yu Xinrong also responded to questions from foreign media on the issue of genetically modified genes. He said: the attitude of the Ministry of Agriculture towards the issue of genetically modified genes is clear: first, it actively supports independent innovation in research and occupies the commanding heights of agricultural biotechnology; second, it is prudent in popularization to ensure safety; and third, management is in accordance with the law.

"at present, people have doubts and arguments about GM. From the perspective of the history of human scientific and technological progress, this is a normal phenomenon. This year, the central government proposed to strengthen the research, safety management and scientific popularization of genetically modified biotechnology. I think, with the deepening of science popularization and the development of practice, public misgivings can be gradually diminished. " Yu Xinrong said: transgenic, as an important new biological technology, has not been born for a long time, and society has a process of deepening its understanding. Transgenic is a new technology and new industry, which has a broad development prospect. China is a large consumer of agricultural products, with a large population and little water shortage, frequent floods and droughts, and a high incidence of diseases and insect pests. In order to ensure the long-term effective supply of major agricultural products, we must take the road of scientific and technological innovation, including the need to have a place in the high and new technology of genetic modification.

It is reported that at present, China has only approved the commercial cultivation of genetically modified cotton and papaya, and has not approved any commercial production of genetically modified staple grains. In the future, the Ministry of Agriculture will follow the promotion steps of "non-edible-indirect edible-edible" and carry out popularization and application cautiously. At the same time, the Chinese government has always adhered to the disclosure of GM information and made public all relevant laws and regulations, safety evaluation standards, examination and approval results related to agricultural GMOs. At present, the biosafety management of agricultural transgenic is standardized and orderly and can be controlled as a whole. The Ministry of Agriculture has issued the standard for labeling agricultural genetically modified organisms, which forcibly marks 17 products of genetically modified soybeans, corn, rape, cotton, tomatoes and other five types of crops according to the law.