Song Jianchao, a legal expert in rural affairs, was a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Over the past five years, Song and his peers focused on a single mission – securing the quality of China's agricultural products with scientific methods.

"In 2018, we submitted a proposal to the CPPCC National Committee for promoting the construction of an agricultural food quality and safety tracing system. It has attracted wide attention from the government and society," said Song.

The proposal called for a certificate to be tagged on farm products with details including the origin, harvest time, usage of fertilizer and pesticide.

Wang Yang, chairman of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, chose it as a key proposal in 2019. Wang had held meetings and supervised government departments to push for the development of the proposal in person.

Over the past five years, the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC has faithfully fulfilled its duties. About 24,000 out of over 29,000 proposals on various topics it received have been adopted and put forward to the central authorities for reference in making decisions, laws and policies. Among them, about one percent were chosen as key proposals because they concerned such important issues as agriculture product safety. 

"Our effort has been recognized by both the society and the government, and eventually it was included into the law," said Song.

"The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has also followed up and issued quality tracing measures for farm products. So I think our work has paid off," he added.

The proposal has been written into the amended Law on Quality and Safety of  Agricultural Products which came into effect in January. With scientific supervision and more legal guarantees, Chinese consumers can be more confident in the safety of farm products at their dining tables.

Although Song's duty as a CPPCC member ends this year, his work on rural  development and food safety carries on. Song said his future work will focus on improving the system to benefit more people.

"Rural affairs will always be our concern, even if we no longer serve the CPPCC agriculture committee. Because it's the Party's mission and concerns millions of people's well-being," said Song.