Abstract: Against the backdrop of a increasingly severe global food security situation and the accelerated transition toward agricultural modernization, cultivating and developing New Quality Productive Forces (NQPFs) in paddy systems has become a crucial strategic initiative to steer the rice industry toward high-quality and sustainable development. This paper provides a systematic analysis of the theoretical foundations of NQPFs and their application in agriculture. It then examines the defining characteristics of paddy field NQPFs from multiple dimensions—technology, production factors, industrial structure, and ecological integration—highlighting their innovative, smart, efficient, green, low-carbon, integrated, synergistic, open, and inclusive features. The significance of fostering paddy field NQPFs is elaborated from four key perspectives: strengthening yield capacity and stabilizing supply to reinforce food security; increasing farmers' income and stimulating new drivers for rural revitalization; promoting resource conservation and transforming resource utilization patterns; and protecting the environment to advance ecological civilization. The development of paddy field NQPFs is thus portrayed as a systematic and strategic undertaking vital to national interests. Nevertheless, the cultivation of paddy field NQPFs in China still faces multiple challenges, including persistently small and fragmented land holdings that limit economies of scale, weak production infrastructure and insufficient intelligent equipment, tightening ecological constraints such as soil degradation and non-point source pollution, a shortage of skilled practitioners and an imbalanced talent structure, as well as an agricultural sci-tech innovation system that requires greater efficacy—particularly in translating research into practical applications. To address these challenges, this study proposes a comprehensive and systematic set of strategies. The proposed pathway emphasizes strengthening technological innovation as the core driver, particularly in areas like biotechnology and smart agriculture; optimizing institutional policies and financial support mechanisms to create a favorable environment; cultivating new types of agricultural business entities and a new generation of skilled professionals as key agents of change; promoting industrial integration to extend value chains and explore new value spaces, such as through circular economy models and “paddy field +” formats; and deepening international cooperation to integrate into global innovation and market networks. Through synergistic collaboration among government, industry, academia, research institutions, and end-users, this multifaceted approach aims to break through the rigid constraints of resources and the environment, comprehensively enhance the total factor productivity of the rice industry, and provide robust theoretical support and practical guidance for safeguarding national food security and achieving sustainable agricultural development.