Common prosperity for farmers must be achieved through institutional safeguards

Deepen the reform of the rural land system——

Improve the reasonable, standardized and diversified safeguard mechanism for farmers whose land is expropriated, and reasonably raise individual returns

In August this year, the first transaction of rural collective operating construction land entering the market in Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, and the nationwide “first hammer” for rural collective operating construction land entering the market in Meitan County, Guizhou Province, marked breakthrough progress in the pilot reform of the rural land system. Up to now, pilot counties in Zhejiang, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places have completed 6 transactions of 58.59 mu of rural collective operating construction land entering the market, with a total transaction price of 24.9307 million yuan.

The land system is a foundational system of the state. Reforming and improving the rural land system is conducive to stimulating the vitality of rural economic and social development, to improving the institutional mechanisms for integrated urban-rural development, and to promoting the synchronized development of industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization.

The Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Deepening Rural Reform (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) makes comprehensive arrangements for carrying out pilot reforms of the rural land system with rural land expropriation, market entry of collective operating construction land, and the homestead system as the main content, and sets out systematic requirements for the pilot reform work.

In response to problems such as an excessively broad scope of land expropriation, procedures that are not standardized enough, an imperfect safeguard mechanism for farmers whose land is expropriated, and an unsound mechanism for distributing land value-added returns, the Plan proposes narrowing the scope of land expropriation, standardizing land expropriation procedures, improving the reasonable, standardized and diversified safeguard mechanism for farmers whose land is expropriated, establishing a mechanism for distributing land value-added returns that takes into account the state, the collective and the individual, and reasonably raising individual returns.

In response to problems such as the incomplete powers and functions of rural collective operating construction land, its inability to enter the market on equal terms and at equal rights and equal prices, and transaction rules that urgently need to be improved, the Plan proposes allowing existing rural collective construction land designated by the overall land use plan and urban-rural plans for operating purposes such as industrial and mining storage and commercial services to enjoy equal rights with state-owned construction land, and, on the premise of complying with planning, use control and lawful acquisition, to be transferred, leased or contributed as shares, while improving market entry transaction rules, service and supervision systems, and a reasonable distribution mechanism for land value-added returns. In response to problems such as difficulties for farming households in obtaining homestead land, extensive use, and obstructed exit, the Plan proposes improving the safeguarding and acquisition methods of homestead rights and interests, exploring a new mechanism for farmers' housing security, clearly defining farmers' property rights in housing, exploring a paid use system for homestead land and a voluntary paid exit mechanism, and exploring effective ways to mortgage, guarantee and transfer farmers' property rights in housing.

⟦NL> Deepening the reform of the rural land system must uphold the three bottom lines of “the public ownership nature of land is not changed, the red line for cultivated land is not breached, and farmers' interests are not harmed,” and prevent historic and subversive mistakes.

Deepen the reform of the rural collective property rights system——

The collective ownership system must not be dismantled, collective ownership must not be hollowed out, and collective assets must not be lost

The rural collective ownership system based on collective ownership of land is an important form of socialist public ownership and an institutional safeguard for achieving common prosperity for farmers. In deepening the reform of the rural collective property rights system, the focus should be on strengthening the protection of rural collective property rights, activating the potential of various rural factors, granting farmers more property rights, exploring effective forms for clear property rights relations, shared distribution of interests, optimized factor allocation and improved governance structures in the rural collective economy, and establishing a rural collective property rights system with Chinese characteristics and a new operating mechanism for the rural collective economy that meets the requirements of the socialist market economy.

Classified reform should be advanced for different types of collective assets. For resource-based assets, the focus is on promptly completing the confirmation, registration and issuance of certificates for land contractual management rights, and exploring the development of various cooperative forms such as land share cooperatives. For operating assets, the focus is on clarifying creditor's rights and debts, quantifying assets, setting up equity, managing equity and distributing returns as the main content, advancing the reform of the share cooperative system for rural collective property rights, converting assets into shares and quantifying them to members of collective economic organizations, developing farmers' share cooperatives, and improving the management, supervision and income distribution mechanisms for the operation of collective assets. For public welfare assets, the focus is on exploring effective mechanisms for unified collective operation and management so as to better provide public welfare services to members of collective economic organizations and community residents.

The Plan points out that at the present stage the reform of the rural collective property rights system is strictly limited to within the respective collective economic organization, and effective measures must be taken to prevent a small number of people within a collective economic organization from encroaching on or controlling collective assets and to prevent external capital from swallowing or controlling collective assets.

In deepening the reform of rural collective property rights, the principles and bottom lines of reform must be upheld. The collective ownership system of rural land must be upheld. The reform of the rural collective property rights system is not simply a matter of dividing everything up or eating the “parting meal” of the collective economy; advancing the reform of the rural collective property rights system requires maintaining the stability of rural collective economic organizations. It is necessary to uphold that rural land and assets are owned by farmers' collectives, benefit the collectives, and are shared within the collectives, actively explore effective ways to develop and strengthen the collective economy, and not dismantle the collective ownership system, hollow out collective ownership, or lose collective assets. It is necessary to adapt to local conditions and proceed step by step, and advance reform actively and steadily. In view of the vastly different realities in rural areas, reform cannot be advanced by cutting cloth with a single pattern; the pace and methods of reform must proceed from the actual conditions of each place, leaving grassroots levels specific space for “construction.”

Deepen the reform of the agricultural operation system——

Land transfer must not become a great leap forward, must not involve coercion or commandism, and must not involve blind administrative direction

Developing various forms of appropriately scaled agricultural operations is the only way to agricultural modernization. As of June this year, there were more than 970,000 family farms nationwide, farmers' cooperatives reached 1.4 million, and leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization exceeded 120,000; new types of agricultural operating entities have gradually become a vital force in modern agricultural development.

Adapting to the rapid development of rural social productive forces and the profound changes in the rural economic and social structure, with the core aim of raising land output rates, resource utilization rates and labor productivity, accelerating the building of a three-dimensional and composite modern agricultural operation system based on household farming, linked by cooperation and association, and supported by socialized services, so that the basic rural operation system takes on new vitality and adds new impetus to advancing agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics, has become an inevitable requirement of reforming the agricultural operation system.

Promote the standardized and orderly transfer of land management rights. It must be standardized and orderly; in accordance with the principles of lawfulness, voluntariness and compensation, guide farmers to transfer the management rights of contracted land in various ways. It is necessary to go with the trend, truly respect farmers' wishes, and not launch a great leap forward, not resort to coercion or commandism, and not engage in blind administrative direction.

Develop various forms of appropriately scaled agricultural operations. Efforts should be made regarding “various forms”: it is necessary both to encourage achieving land scale operations through the transfer of land management rights and to support achieving scale operations in agricultural socialized services without transferring land management rights, through methods such as land shareholding and land trusteeship. Efforts should be made regarding “appropriate scale”: developing scaled agricultural operations must be compatible with the transfer of rural labor, advances in agricultural science and technology, and the level of agricultural socialized services; it must not one-sidedly pursue ultra-large-scale operations or artificially “build up big households.”

Actively cultivate new types of agricultural operating entities. New types of agricultural operating entities such as family farms, specialized large households, farmers' cooperatives and leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization have unique advantages and room for development in different regions and different fields; it is necessary to adapt to local conditions and provide classified guidance, not pursue a single model, not favor one type of entity, and focus on strengthening policy support and promoting standardized development. It is necessary to continuously innovate the organizational forms and interest-linking mechanisms of the agricultural industrial chain, build mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation models among farming households, cooperatives and enterprises, and enable farmers to share more of the value-added returns of the industrial chain. It is necessary to cultivate a professional farmer workforce, support migrant workers with skills and business capabilities to return to their hometowns to establish family farms, lead farmers' cooperatives, and found agricultural product processing and marketing enterprises and agricultural socialized service organizations. (Zhao Yang, Zhu Weidong, Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group)