On July 22, the International Forum on Black Soil Conservation and Utilization opens in Changchun. Jing Junhai, Party chief of Jilin province, makes a speech and announces the official launch of Jilin Black Soil Conservation Day. Photo/Zou Naishuo

On behalf of the Jilin provincial Party committee and the provincial government, Jing Junhai extended welcome to the guests participating in the event. He said that as a big province in the black soil resource, Jilin always adheres to the strategy of sustainable farmland use and innovative application of agricultural technology to increase farmland productivity, focuses on building and improving its work, management and technical systems, summarizes and promotes the "Lishu model" of conservation tillage, takes solid steps to carry out the "Black Soil Granary" scientific and technological battle, strives to fertilize the black soil and prevent it from becoming poor, and shows its sense of responsibility in leading the protection of black soil, safeguarding national food security and enhancing the international competitiveness of China's agricultural sector. Jing said that hopefully, all countries can learn from each other, share experience, work together to tackle key problems, effectively protect the high-yielding black soil according to local conditions for sustainable utilization, give better play to the role of "ballast stone" in food production, and make greater contributions to food security.

Han Jun said that at present, Jilin is fully implementing the strategy of sustainable farmland use and innovative application of agricultural technology to increase farmland productivity, vigorously carrying out the "Black Soil Granary" scientific and technological battle, supporting factual and scientific research on the formation, degradation and loss of black soil, and promoting the combination of engineering and biology, agricultural machinery and agronomy, land use and conservation, so as to ensure the sustainable utilization of black soil. He added that the province is also summarizing and promoting the "Lishu model", popularizing the practice of returning straw and waste to the field, guiding farmers to become the main force for the protection and utilization of black soil, and speeding up the construction of agricultural belts for national food security.

The forum released the Changchun initiative and connected with Lishu via video link. Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture, S.L. Levin, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, Roman Leshchenko, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Tereza Cristina, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply of Brazil, Luis Basterra, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Argentina, and Janusz Wojciechowski, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, delivered speeches via video link and expressed their strong desire to carry out in-depth cooperation in agricultural technologies and to jointly conserve and utilize black soil.

Ma Youxiang, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, presided over the opening ceremony of the forum. Provincial leaders Gao Guangbin, Hu Jiafu and Zhang Zhijun, as well as An Guiwu, secretary-general of the provincial government, heads of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, envoys of the United States, Russia, Ukraine and Argentina to China, representatives of FAO, WFP, ESCAP-CSAM and UNDP, officials from the agriculture department of Heilongjiang province, Liaoning province and Inner Mongolia autonomous region, international and domestic agricultural experts and scholars attended the opening ceremony.