In the risk monitoring, first, play the role of relevant industry departments. The scientific and timely monitoring of various disaster risk factors is improved through some measures, including encrypting monitoring stations, improving monitoring technology and equipment application, and comprehensively adopting manual monitoring and equipment monitoring.

Second, in view of monitoring possible risks, the Ministry of Emergency Management will take the lead to organize the disaster monitoring department, the emergency rescue department and the areas that may be affected to carry out joint meetings. The meetings aim to focus on the study of the scope, intensity and possible loss of disaster risk, and the regions that need to be taken seriously, then putting forward the corresponding suggestions and suggestions.

Third, issue the early warning information. For disaster processes that may cause disaster losses, the corresponding early warning information is generated according to the level of early warning. What’s more, the level of disaster risk level and threatened areas are clarified. The National Emergency Warning and Release Platform will uniformly issue the relevant measures. All these measures can be distributed to the relevant government departments and the public which can be obtained by the media and mobile phones.

Fourth, in the emergency phase, the governments of the threatened areas, as the main body of the warning information, organize the masses to carry out the transfer of risk avoidance and reduce the disaster loss.

In the monitoring and dissemination of early warning information, we should distinguish the functions between the government and the society.

For the government, it is regulated through various emergency plans and work systems, especially for higher-level early warning information. This measure can provide for real-time sharing among disaster monitoring departments, departments responsible for relief and threatened areas, improving decision-making efficiency.

For the society, early warning information is disseminated through the media and mobile phones, and early warning information is widely sent to the people in the threatened areas. For people in remote areas, grass-roots communities should also alert people by means of door-to-door search and drumming to ensure that people can obtain early warning information.

Specifying a strategic goal of building and developing digital villages in four steps, the Digital Village Development Strategy Outline provides a clear road map for the promotion and ultimate realisation of comprehensive digital village construction and development.

4.1 Step one (completed)

Preliminary progress has been made in digital village construction. 4G network coverage exceeds 98% in China’s administrative villages, rural digital economies have been developing rapidly, and the extension of Internet Plus government services into rural areas has been accelerating as of 2020.

4.2 Step two

Important progress is scheduled to have been made in digital village development, including further popularisation of the 4G network and innovative application of the 5G network in rural areas, an obvious narrowing of the digital divide between urban and rural areas, accelerated development of the rural digital economy, a boosting of the development of rural internet culture, and gradual improvement of the rural digital governance system by 2025.

4.3 Step three

Great digital village development progress is scheduled to have been made by 2035. The digital divide between urban and rural areas will be drastically narrowed, rural dwellers’ digital literacy will have improved significantly, and modernisation of agriculture and rural areas will be essentially realised.

4.4 Step four

Digital villages are scheduled to have fully taken shape by the middle of the century, which will promote the comprehensive vitalisation of rural areas and thus the goal of achieving widespread realisation of vibrant agriculture, beautified rural areas, and prospering rural residents.

The Digital Village Development Strategy Outline and the Implementation Plan for Rural Construction Action, which were issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council in May 2022, provide answers pertaining to all aspects of creation and development tasks associated with digital villages from various perspectives and dimensions.

The Digital Village Development Strategy Outline delineates 10 tasks associated with the creation and development of digital villages: building rural information infrastructure, developing the rural digital economy, strengthening the supply of scientific and technological innovation in agriculture and rural areas, building smart green villages, boosting and developing rural internet culture, promoting the modernisation of rural governance, deepening information services for the benefit of the public, stimulating endogenous forces that drive rural vitalisation, pushing forward in-depth development of online poverty alleviation, and promoting the integration of urban and rural informatisation in a comprehensive and well-coordinated manner. The 10 tasks cover all aspects of rural vitalisation and are of great significance in the acceleration of rural vitalisation and the modernisation of agriculture and rural areas. The formulation of the ninth task is outdated, however, due to the fact that the Digital Village Development Strategy Outline was published in May 2019, which was before China finished eliminating absolute poverty in its borders. Now that the task of “aligning efforts to consolidate and expand poverty alleviation achievements with efforts to promote rural vitalisation” has been carried out in the new era, the ninth task can be altered to “aligning efforts to consolidate and expand poverty reduction achievements with efforts to promote rural vitalisation using the internet.”

The Implementation Plan for Rural Development Action proposes implementation of the digital village creation and development project and outlines nine specific aspects – carrying out digital village pilot projects; strengthening construction of rural information infrastructure; accelerating construction of rural and agricultural remote sensing satellites and other space-based facilities; establishing rural and agricultural big data systems; developing smart agriculture; pushing forward the digitalisation of rural management services; promoting extension of services related to the Internet Plus strategy, which consists of an open-ended equation in which technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are applied to industries and undertakings like manufacturing, commerce, banking, agriculture, and rural development as a means of invigorating and advancing them, to rural areas; implementing the Xueliang Project, or Sharp Eyes Program, which involves using big data and other technologies to monitor public areas and thus enable various problems to be addressed in a rapid manner; and promoting information services in rural locales – all of which are in line with the 10 tasks proposed in the Digital Village Development Strategy Outline.

A new development approach that plays a role in promoting a new stage of the digital economy, digital village construction is a practical necessity.

Digital village construction is conducive to promoting integrated development and digital transformation of agricultural space, ecological space, and rural residential space and functions as a basic way of facilitating a new development method in rural areas. It will help link production, distribution, circulation, and consumption; break through bottlenecks in urban and rural economic cycles; enable the smooth and orderly flow of economic factors; and form a strong and effective market supply system. It will also help promote the construction of rural information infrastructure, generate a number of new business models, contribute to the restructuring of rural industries, create more job opportunities, boost rural residents’ incomes, and further expand the super-sized domestic market.

Digital village construction is an urgent aspect of building a digital China and narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural areas.

The creation and development of digital villages will effectively break technical resistance, structural constraints, and value barriers in the flow of key urban and rural resources and promote a virtuous cycle involving pivotal urban and rural digital information elements. It will play an important role in the implementation of digital China strategy and effectively bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas by connecting cities and villages, counties and towns, and east China and west China. Digital village construction is thus an important way of unravelling the dual urban-rural structure and promoting the integration of urban and rural areas and an inherent part of satisfying people’s yearnings for better lives.

Digital village construction is an important part of pushing forward comprehensive rural vitalisation and accelerating the modernisation of agriculture and rural areas.

Building and developing digital villages is an effective and substantial way of ensuring acceleration of comprehensive rural vitalisation in addition to an important component of current work pertaining to agriculture, rural areas and the people who live in them. Digital villages will vigorously boost the development of the rural digital economy, digital society, and digital governance through digital transformation, which will effectively drive multi-faceted rural production, lifestyle, and governance reform, thus practically improving rural development spaces and levels and governance efficiency and providing substantial support for rural vitalisation and modernisation of the agricultural sector and rural areas.

Establishing digital villages is a sure way of achieving common prosperity and enhancing rural dwellers’ sense of fulfilment, happiness and security.

Digital village construction contributes to the upgrade of rural industries and enables rural residents to sell their green organic agricultural products and intangible cultural heritage products to buyers all over the country without having to leave the areas they live in. It helps promote transformation and upgrade of consumption patterns pertaining to goods produced in rural areas: netizens gain the ability to buy high-quality and favourably priced agricultural products from all over China with just a few taps of the finger using mobile apps. It also helps upgrade public services and security. For example, online classrooms made it possible for children to interact with their teachers while staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and online medical services enable rural residents to enjoy high-quality medical resources near their homes since rural health centres are able to connect to major hospitals through online platforms for consultations. These efforts directly result in improved, more-prosperous, and more-convenient lifestyles for rural residents.

The Digital Village Development Strategy Outline, which was issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council in May 2019, defines the creation and development of digital villages as an endogenous process of agricultural and rural modernisation and transformation and improvement of rural residents' modern information skills accompanied by the application of the internet, informatisation, and digitalisation in the economic and social development of agriculture and rural areas and notes that the undertaking constitutes a strategic rural vitalisation measure and is an important aspect of building a digital China.

Article 25 of the Government Grain Reserve Storage Administration Measures (National Grain Warehouse Regulation No. 18 [2021]) stipulates that “government grain reserves shall be stored separately in independent granaries (stored in separate locations in cavernous and/or underground facilities) by variety, production year, grade, nature, and owner and shall not be mixed with other grain.”

Article 19 of the Grain and Oil Warehousing Management Measures (National Development and Reform Commission Order No. 5) stipulates that “if the storage capacity of an organisation engaged in grain and/or oil storage is insufficient, it should make reasonable use of other organisations’ existing grain and oil storage facilities by means of leasing or commissioned storage in order to expand its storage capacity. Organisations engaged in grain and/or oil storage shall sign standardised leasing or commissioned storage contracts with the organisations that lease from them or otherwise utilise their services, clarifying the rights and obligations of both parties.” Article 9 of the Measures for the Protection of State-Owned Grain and Oil Storage and Logistics Facilities (National Development and Reform Commission Order No. 40, 2016) stipulates that “when an organisation engaged in grain and/or oil storage is leasing its grain and/or oil storage and logistics facilities or is commissioned for its services, it shall sign a contract with the lessee or the party otherwise utilising its services that specifies the rights and obligations of both parties and submit it to the grain administration department corresponding with the area where the grain and/or oil storage and logistics facilities are located within 30 working days from the date of signing.”

Section 15.4.1 of the Technical Regulations Governing Phosphine Fumigation (LS/T1201-2020) stipulates that “all phosphine fumigation, gas dispersion, and residue treatment operations shall be equipped with self-contained, open-circuit compressed air respirators.”

Regarding the disinfestation and sterilisation of empty warehouses and equipment, chapter 1 of the Safe Grain and Oil Storage Practice Code (National Grain Reserves No. 234 [2016]) regulations, “Preparation for Warehousing Operations,” stipulates that “…warehouses should be emptied and cleaned and nationally approved insecticide should be applied, a plan for the disinfestation of empty warehouses should be formulated and it should be implemented after it is approved, and thorough quarantining should occur if live insects are discovered. The equipment management department shall clean the facilities and apply insecticide in order to ensure normal operation of equipment related to processes such as conveying, cleaning, and warehousing during this period.” Otherwise, there is no specific frequency requirement for the above-mentioned disinfestation and sterilisation work; enterprises have the freedom to make the determination for themselves in accordance with actual situations.

Grain storage loss includes moisture and impurity reduction and natural loss. See Annex 2 of the Grain and Oil Storage Management Measures (National Development and Reform Commission Order No. 5) and relevant provisions in Article 34 of the Government Reserve Grain Storage Management Measures (National Grain Warehouse Regulation No. 18 [2021]). In practice, reduction of moisture and impurities before and during storage is usually treated as loss when grain leaves a warehouse. If a second weighing is required because grain is dried and/or cleaned before it is stored or for other reasons, moisture and impurity reduction shall be verified and taken into account according to actual quantities. Any specific measures governing the management of local reserves that exist shall also be complied with.

Article 21 and Annex 2 of the Grain and Oil Storage Management Measures (National Development and Reform Commission Order No. 5) stipulate that “storage loss includes natural loss and moisture and impurity reduction” and outline natural loss and moisture and impurity reduction definitions and treatment methods and stipulate fixed natural loss allotment. Moisture impurity reduction and natural loss are calculated separately, and the allocated amount of natural loss does not include moisture impurity reduction.”

If the difference between actual grain storage loss and moisture and impurity reduction is less than or equal to the natural loss allotment, natural loss allocation shall be disregarded to the extent that it exceeds the difference between “actual storage loss and moisture and impurity reduction” after quantities are verified. If the difference between actual storage loss and moisture and impurity reduction is greater than the natural loss allocation, natural loss shall be deducted in accordance with natural loss allotment, and the quantity exceeding the natural loss allocation is considered to be excessive loss.

If stored grain leaving a warehouse weighs more than what was logged when it went into storage, the difference is disregarded. Excess weight mostly arises due to phenomena such as absorption of atmospheric moisture during storage, errors incurred when weighing in and out of a warehouse, errors reducing moisture and impurities during purchase, and improper accounting treatment. Article 22 of the Government Reserve Grain Storage Management Measures stipulates that “…any excess weight shall not be used to offset loss associated with other grain and/or oil cargo spaces and/or batches.”

Issue 1: Grain and oil storage loss refers to the total loss incurred throughout the entire storage process from the measurement and acceptance of grain and oil, to storage, to measurements made when leaving storage. Grain and oil storage loss includes moisture and impurity reduction and natural loss, with an allotment existing for natural loss.

Issue 2: Impurity reduction mostly occurs as a result of impurity removal, ventilation, drying, and handling during the process of grain and oil warehousing and storage. Some impurities are removed during the impurity removal process; organic impurities dry and wither during ventilation and drying; and fine impurities are lost during handling. Reducing impurities is beneficial to grain storage soundness, and specialised impurity removal processes can quickly reduce them. Impurity content may change whether or not impurity removal processes occur, however, so it is, therefore, necessary to calculate and verify impurity reduction.

Issue 3: Generally speaking, moisture and impurity reduction and natural loss are objective phenomena, and the existence of reasonable errors has been taken into consideration. If moisture and/or impurities increase, the reason shall be analysed. Moisture and impurity reduction and natural loss should be calculated separately. If moisture and/or impurities increase rather than decrease, they will be considered to have been reduced by zero and cannot be used to offset natural loss.