A new dedicated law on farmland protection and quality improvement was recently passed at the 24th session of the 14th National People's Congress Standing Committee, set to take effect on January 1, 2027. This legislation provides comprehensive and systematic regulations for farmland conservation and quality enhancement, creating a more robust legal system for protecting arable land and offering strong legal support for securing the nation's grain supply.
Farmland serves as the lifeblood of grain production and the fundamental material basis for agricultural modernization. As a country with a large population and significant agricultural sector, the protection and quality improvement of cultivated land directly affect the wellbeing of billions of people and the nation's long-term stability. This issue is not only central to national food security and the acceleration of agricultural development but also constitutes a vital component of ecological civilization construction.
Where to begin
The protection of farmland has always relied on legal safeguards. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a series of resolute measures with "teeth" have been implemented to maintain the red lines for cultivated land and permanent basic farmland. These efforts include completing revisions to the Land Administration Law and its implementation regulations, as well as enacting significant legislation such as the Rural Revitalization Promotion Law, the Black Soil Protection Law, and the Food Security Guarantee Law. Thanks to these legal frameworks and collective efforts, the trend of declining total farmland area has been initially curbed. However, challenges persist, including the conversion of farmland for non-agricultural and non-grain purposes, generally low soil quality, and the heavy task of building high-standard farmland. The foundation for safeguarding the protection red line remains fragile. At the same time, as the economic development model shifts from extensive growth to intensive growth and as territorial spatial planning defines agricultural zones, the need for comprehensive farmland protection has become increasingly urgent. Against this backdrop, establishing a dedicated law based on existing regulations is of great significance for enhancing the systematic, standardized, and law-based management of farmland protection, ensuring the preservation of this vital resource, and consolidating the foundation of national food security.
The Farmland Protection and Quality Improvement Law addresses multiple dimensions, including clarifying overall requirements, strengthening target constraints, optimizing protection layouts, strictly controlling farmland occupation, comprehensively improving soil quality, enhancing ecological protection of farmland, reinforcing supervision, and imposing strict accountability. The law is detailed and features several notable highlights.
First, it upholds the strictest farmland protection system, further reinforcing institutional rigidity. Farmland is among the nation's most precious resources, and the strictest protection measures must be applied throughout the entire process of conservation and quality enhancement. The law strictly maintains the farmland protection red line by establishing an occupancy-compensation balance system, strictly limiting the conversion of farmland into construction land or other agricultural land, and resolutely curbing the non-agricultural use of arable land. Additionally, it mandates the creation of an assessment and accountability mechanism that includes joint responsibility of Party and government leadership and off-office audits, along with a full-cycle responsibility tracing and lifelong accountability system for high-standard farmland construction projects. This ensures that farmland protection is not merely a "soft indicator" but a "hard requirement" for officials at all levels. By firmly assigning protection responsibilities to local governments at every level, the law guarantees that the red line cannot be crossed or violated, turning the system into a truly "live" high-voltage line.
Second, it adopts a systematic approach to protect farmland quantity, quality, and ecology simultaneously. Farmland protection is a complex and systematic undertaking that requires balanced attention to these three aspects, not only securing the red line but also enhancing the "added value" of arable land. The law extends protection efforts from farmland resources to the broader ecosystem, promoting the construction of high-standard farmland and the rehabilitation of degraded land. Through measures such as soil improvement, fertility enhancement, and erosion control, it systematically boosts soil quality, establishes a comprehensive system for ecological protection and restoration of farmland, and strengthens pollution prevention in arable land. This integrated protection philosophy will drive farmland conservation toward more refined and systematic governance.
Third, it promotes institutional integration and innovation to elevate the overall level of farmland protection. The law consolidates and unifies farmland protection provisions scattered across various related regulations, seamlessly aligning with the ecological environment code, the Land Administration Law, the Black Soil Protection Law, and the Food Security Guarantee Law. It deepens requirements for strictly maintaining farmland and permanent basic farmland protection red lines and enhancing high-standard farmland construction, adhering to principles of balancing quantity and quality, strict law enforcement, systematic advancement, and sustainable utilization. This establishes a comprehensive, systematic, coordinated, and clearly defined institutional framework for farmland protection and quality improvement. The law also elevates several farmland protection measures to the legal level, such as stipulating for the first time a negative list of areas that cannot be designated as permanent basic farmland, providing legal grounds for optimizing and adjusting such farmland and safeguarding grain production capacity at the source. To address new challenges related to existing farmland development, it introduces a land use system linking the scale of new construction occupying agricultural land with the efficiency of utilizing existing construction land, effectively controlling farmland loss through a "compensation based on occupation" mechanism.
Farmland protection is a matter of national importance, directly tied to food security, and the Chinese people's rice bowls should primarily be filled with domestically produced grain. The Farmland Protection and Quality Improvement Law provides solid guarantees for strengthening the foundation of national food security. However, laws alone cannot achieve their purpose without enforcement. Going forward, all regions and relevant departments must strengthen their sense of responsibility, strictly enforce laws, ensure fair justice, and deepen legal education and outreach. By uniting the entire society's efforts to protect farmland, we can transform the institutional design on paper into bountiful harvests on the ground, writing a new chapter in food security and agricultural modernization on the promising fields ahead.
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