China mulls new legislation to safeguard food security

BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers Monday started deliberating a draft food security law to enhance China's capacity for forestalling and fending off food security risks.

The proposed legislation was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the first reading during the legislature's ongoing session, which runs from Monday to Wednesday.

The draft, consisting of 11 chapters and 69 articles, focuses on issues vital to China's foundation for food security, such as cultivated land protection, grain production, and grain reserves.

Despite an overall favorable situation concerning food security, China, with a growing grain demand, faces multifaceted challenges, including limited and low-quality arable land and increasing difficulty in ensuring stable and high grain output, according to an explanation for the draft.

With an aim to provide a legal guarantee for fortifying China's food security, the draft was formulated based on the country's realities, the document read.

It added that the proposed legislation addresses challenges concerning food security to ensure an adequate food supply in China and translates mature policy measures and institutional achievements that have been tested in practice into legal norms.

Recognizing the importance of arable land protection, the draft provides that redlines to protect farmland, permanent basic cropland, ecosystems, and urban development boundaries, shall be drawn and held.

The draft proposes establishing a compensation system for arable land protection and implementing the system of compensation for the use of cultivated land for other purposes.

The state shall restrict the conversion of cultivated land to other agricultural uses, such as forests and grassland, the draft reads.

On the grain production front, the draft emphasizes the establishment of a national agriculture germplasm bank and a seed reserve system. It calls for promoting mechanized technologies and building capacity for disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief in grain production.

Measures are proposed in the draft to improve China's grain reserve system and mechanism, further leveraging the crucial role of grain reserves in adjusting grain supply and demand and stabilizing grain production.

Strengthening grain distribution management and promoting the high-quality development of the grain processing industry are also among the focal points of the draft.

Another vital aspect of the draft is improving the emergency grain supply capacity in the country. The draft stipulates that the state shall establish a reporting system for unusual volatility in the grain market and asks for prompt responses to disruptions.

Measures to promote grain conservation and reduce losses, and to foster a sound responsibility mechanism for ensuring food security are also outlined in the draft.

It specifies provisions for legal consequences for violations. They closely align with existing laws and regulations related to land management, agricultural product quality and safety, food safety, anti-food waste, and workplace safety.