In recent years, the provincial government has provided legal and financial support for soil protection. In 2018, the provincial people's congress passed regulations on the protection of black soil which stipulated that anyone who damages the precious resource will be fined or prosecuted.

Last year, the provincial government allocated 720 million yuan ($111 million) in subsidies for conservation tillage across 1.23 million hectares of farmland.

Jiang Zelin, a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said food is the foundation of the national economy. Measures taken to ensure food security cannot be relaxed at any time.

"Situated in the world's golden corn and rice belt, Jilin is rich in arable land resources and fertile soil," he told Beijing News last year.

According to Jiang, black soil land accounts for 65 percent of the 7.03 million hectares of arable land in the province. The good environment and land resources provide plenty of scope for the development of agricultural modernization in the province.

"Agriculture in Jilin is accelerating its transition from the traditional to the modern, from labor-intensive to factor-intensive," he told the newspaper.

"The agricultural structure is gradually shifting from a single method of food supply to a diversified pattern of combinations of planting and breeding. The production structure has become more scientific and comprehensive."

On March 29, the provincial government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences signed an agreement in Changchun, Jilin's capital, to research black soil protection technology, the government said.

The two sides will carry out research on the mechanism of black soil evolution to aid its protection and utilization. They will also develop environmentally friendly measures and technologies, including the use of corn stalks to cover fallow land, improved machinery and cultivation techniques. They will also establish a data center for land protection and use, and a national black soil key laboratory.

Three black soil protection demonstration zones will be built in three cities in the province: Changchun; Siping; and Baicheng.