A special harvest, a special meaning

Another bountiful harvest! According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' agricultural situation dispatch and expert field investigations and analyses, this year's summer grain harvest has achieved stable acreage and increased yield per unit area, ensuring a bumper harvest. Day after day, from south to north, waves of wheat roll across the fields, the air is filled with the aroma of wheat, and the sound of machinery roars; everywhere is filled with the joy of harvest. Gold has become the richest color of the vast fields, and the bumper harvest has become the most dazzling scenery across China.
Every bountiful harvest is something to look forward to, but this year's summer grain harvest is particularly exhilarating. During the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping, using the phrases "at any time" (twice) and "indispensable," once again profoundly interpreted the extreme importance of food security and fully affirmed the role of stable agricultural production and supply in fighting the epidemic. "For a country with 1.4 billion people like ours, the fundamental position of agriculture can never be ignored or weakened at any time; having enough grain in hand and feeling secure in our hearts is always the truth. This COVID-19 epidemic was so serious, yet our society remained stable, and the stable supply of food and important agricultural and sideline products has been indispensable." This is encouragement, a spur, and a clear requirement for agricultural and food production. The more we face risks and challenges, the more we must stabilize agriculture and ensure the safety of food and important agricultural and sideline products. The successful achievement of the summer grain harvest is a special achievement in a special year, demonstrating the mission and responsibility of the agricultural and rural front, and will surely add more confidence and strength to the healthy development of the economy and society.
This is no ordinary harvest! The greater the difficulties at the start of the year, the greater the significance of this harvest. This is a harvest won after overcoming an epidemic—the fastest-spreading, widest-ranging, and most difficult-to-control epidemic since the founding of the People's Republic of China. In the battle to curb the epidemic, the fundamental role of agriculture and the strategic importance of food security have become even more prominent; this is also a harvest achieved in the context of food security being included as one of the "six guarantees," forming the basic operating framework of the economic and social system. As long as grain production, the foundation of foundations, remains stable, the "six stabilization" and "six guarantee" goals will have strong material support; this is also a harvest achieved in the year of achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects and winning the decisive battle against poverty. Ensuring the supply of important agricultural products, especially grain, has always been the primary task and top priority of agriculture, and the year of achieving a moderately prosperous society must have a grain harvest that matches this achievement. This year's summer grain harvest is of extraordinary significance, and it will make the foundation of food security more solid, the foundation of economic and social development more stable, and it will give us more confidence in coping with risks and challenges and more determination to advance various reforms.
This is not a simple harvest! It was achieved by overcoming multiple overlapping unfavorable factors, making it exceptionally rare and particularly difficult. We had to cope with droughts, warm winters leading to excessive growth, late spring frosts, and pest and disease outbreaks during wheat production, while also overcoming the impact of the epidemic on field management; and while continuing to use time-tested conventional measures, we also adopted innovative and effective measures and extraordinary approaches. At the critical juncture of spring plowing production, the Central Leading Group on COVID-19 Prevention and Control promptly issued the "Guidelines for Current Spring Plowing Production," and the State Council convened a national video conference on spring agricultural production ahead of schedule. In terms of accurate guidance and services, in response to the resurgence of stripe rust and Fusarium head blight in wheat this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs formulated prevention and control plans in advance, strengthened monitoring and early warning, and promptly carried out unified prevention and control and emergency prevention and control, ensuring that all necessary preventive measures were implemented; in terms of assigning responsibilities at all levels, the provincial governor's responsibility system for food security was strengthened to ensure that everyone shares the responsibility and the same bowl of rice. From motivating local governments to focus on grain production, increasing incentives for major grain-producing counties, and ensuring that local governments are not at a disadvantage in grain production, to protecting the enthusiasm of grain growers, improving agricultural subsidy policies, and ensuring that farmers are not at a disadvantage in grain production; from proposing the "eight measures for spring plowing" to guide localities to restore agricultural production order in a differentiated and tiered manner, to launching the "100-day battle for a bumper summer grain harvest"… In this battle, which also had no smoke, it was due to the high importance placed on this by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, the joint efforts of various regions and departments, and the hard work of the vast number of farmers and scientific and technological personnel that we finally achieved a bumper summer grain harvest.
The bumper summer grain harvest has won a beautiful and hard-fought battle, making a good start and laying a solid foundation. However, to achieve a bumper harvest of grain throughout the year, the key lies in the autumn harvest. At present, it is the critical moment of "three summers" (harvesting, sowing and field management) production. All levels and localities should continue to take the initiative in agricultural production, seize the opportune moment to do a good job in summer harvesting, summer sowing and summer field management, lay a solid foundation for autumn grain production and the whole year's grain harvest, make a greater contribution to economic and social development, and celebrate the arrival of a moderately prosperous society in all respects with excellent results.