BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday stressed efforts to effectively strengthen farmland protection and fully improve farmland quality to expand agricultural production space.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while presiding over a meeting of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs (CCFEA), which he heads.

He also urged efforts to well tap the comprehensive utilization potential of saline-alkali land and increase the overall agricultural production capacity.

The meeting heard reports of several departments on strengthening farmland protection and comprehensively improving and utilizing saline-alkali land.

Although China has initially curbed the trend of continuous contraction in the total cultivated farmland since the 18th CPC National Congress, its national conditions featuring a large population and limited farmland remain unchanged and the task of farmland protection is not alleviated, according to the meeting.

Work should be done to ensure the red line of 1.8 billion mu (about 120 million hectares) of farmland will not be breached, while farmland, especially permanent basic farmland, should be turned into modern fertile land which is suitable for farming and capable to produce high and stable yields despite droughts or floods.

Utilization of abandoned land should be strengthened and different kinds of non-conventional farmland should be actively exploited, the meeting noted.

Investment towards sci-tech research, development and production should be enhanced, and effective development modes shall be explored so that the natural constraints of conventional farmland scarcity could be broken through.

The meeting called for formulating a plan for the comprehensive utilization of saline-alkali land.

Efforts should also be made in accelerating the selecting and breeding of saline-alkali tolerant varieties of crops and popularizing the effective saline-alkali land treatment methods, the meeting said.

A guideline on promoting the comprehensive utilization of saline-alkali land was reviewed and approved.

Li Qiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese premier and deputy director of the CCFEA, Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, a member of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and a member of the CCFEA, and Ding Xuexiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese vice premier and a member of the CCFEA, attended the meeting.