The Ministry of Agriculture issued a national bulletin on the quality of cultivated land.

SciDev.Net: "all things are born in the earth, and there is grain in the earth." Cultivated land is the most valuable agricultural resource and an important factor of production. What is its quality? It is about the output capacity of food and agriculture. Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the "National Bulletin on the quality of cultivated Land" (hereinafter referred to as "the Bulletin") to guide various localities to classify and guide them, to promote them by stages, and to strengthen the construction of cultivated land quality.

According to the "Communique", the quality grade of 1.826 billion mu of cultivated land (land data before the second diversion) is divided into one to ten from high to low. Among them, the area of cultivated land rated as first to third class is 498 million mu, accounting for 27.3% of the total cultivated land. The basic fertility of this part of cultivated land is relatively high, and there are basically no obstacle factors. Agricultural production should be carried out in accordance with the combination of use and cultivation to ensure that the quality of cultivated land increases steadily. The area of cultivated land rated as fourth to sixth grade is 818 million mu, accounting for 44.8% of the total cultivated land. The environmental and climatic conditions of this part of cultivated land are basically suitable, the construction of farmland infrastructure has a certain foundation, and the obstacle factors are not obvious, which is the key area and important breakthrough for increasing grain production in the future. By 2020, according to the average increase of the basic fertility of cultivated land by one grade, the comprehensive grain production capacity can be increased by more than 160 billion jin. The area of cultivated land rated as 7 to 10 is 510 million mu, accounting for 27.9% of the total cultivated land. The basic soil fertility of this part of cultivated land is relatively poor, and the production obstacles are prominent, so it is difficult to improve fundamentally in a short time, so the construction of farmland infrastructure and the internal quality of cultivated land should be carried out continuously. At the same time, according to the comprehensive agricultural regionalization of the whole country, the quality of cultivated land in nine regions, including Northeast China, Inner Mongolia and along the Great Wall, Huang-Huai-Hai, Loess Plateau, Middle and Lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Southwest China, South China, Gansu and Xin, Qinghai-Tibet, was analyzed, and the grade of cultivated land quality and main production obstacles in each region were described separately.

According to the relevant responsible comrades of the planting Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, since 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture has launched a nationwide cultivated land fertility survey and quality evaluation. On the basis of "Technical regulations for cultivated Land Fertility Survey and quality Evaluation" (NY/T 1634-2008) and "Classification of cultivated Land types and grades of cultivated Land" (NY/T309-1996), the evaluation unit is the map spots formed by the superposition of cultivated land soil map, land use status map and administrative region map. The fertility level of cultivated land was comprehensively evaluated from the aspects of site conditions, physical and chemical properties of plough layer, soil management, obstacle factors and soil profile characteristics. From 2013 to 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture organized forces to summarize and analyze the results of national cultivated land fertility investigation and quality evaluation, and put the cultivated land fertility level of each county (district, city, flag, regiment, field) into the national unified cultivated land quality grade system, divided into one to ten grades of cultivated land quantity and distribution. In October 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture commissioned scientific research, teaching and extension units such as the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Agricultural University to form an expert group to fully demonstrate the achievements of the national cultivated land quality grade. Experts believe that the national cultivated land quality classification method is reasonable and based on sufficient basis, and the content is in line with the actual agricultural production in various regions. The publication of the results of the national cultivated land quality grade is the most important basic work for the national cultivated land quality construction and management after the second national soil survey in the 1980s. It is conducive to comprehensively reflect the quality of cultivated land in various regions, the main obstacles and the impact on agricultural production. It also provides a scientific basis for the quality construction of cultivated land, the delineation of permanent basic farmland and the quality acceptance of supplementary cultivated land in the balance of occupation and compensation. At the same time, the release of national cultivated land quality grade results will also help the public to understand the current situation of cultivated land quality in China, improve their attention to cultivated land quality problems, and create a good atmosphere for the whole society to support cultivated land quality protection.

Relevant responsible comrades of the planting Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture said that it is an important responsibility of the agricultural sector to manage the quality of cultivated land according to law and strengthen the construction and management of the quality of cultivated land. In the next step, the Ministry of Agriculture will, based on the results of the national classification of cultivated land quality, promote the "Action on Protection and Promotion of cultivated Land quality" and vigorously implement measures such as soil fertility improvement, soil improvement, nutrient balance, and quality restoration, so as to improve the quality of cultivated land and constantly consolidate the long-term foundation for grain and agricultural production. At the same time, we should step up the formulation of the regulations on the quality Protection of cultivated Land and speed up the establishment and improvement of a long-term mechanism for the quality protection of cultivated land. We will constantly improve the three major monitoring networks of cultivated land quality, soil moisture and fertilizer efficiency, establish a monitoring and early warning system of cultivated land quality at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels, and regularly release dynamic change information on cultivated land quality.