Market-oriented reform of agricultural factors is poised for action: what signal will it send?
With the approval of the "Opinions on Further Promoting the Reform and Development of State Farms" at the 17th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms on October 13, another reform plan aimed at introducing market-oriented factors into the traditional agricultural economic system is about to be implemented.
Since the 18th National Congress, the central government has successively issued 21 rural reform plans, covering poverty alleviation, the rural household registration system and many other aspects. The reporter learned that during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, in order to further improve the rural economy with multiple forms of ownership, more than ten reform opinions on the rural land system, the collective property rights system, and the price formation mechanism for agricultural products will be studied and formulated. The common feature of these reforms is that, by introducing market-oriented factors, they aim to give farmers more property rights.
Land reform: implementing the long-term stability of the rural land contracting relationship
The reform of the rural land system will continue to deepen during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. It is reported that in deepening the reform of the rural land contract management system, the government will promptly revise laws such as the "Land Administration Law" and the "Rural Land Contract Law," and at an appropriate time put forward specific plans on measures for extending cultivated land contracts after the second round of contracting expires, the new contract term, and other content; regarding collective land, on the basis of basically completing the confirmation of ownership of rural collective land, it will accelerate the confirmation of the right to use homestead land and collective construction land; and it will carry out pilot programs in areas with the necessary conditions for the paid withdrawal of land contract rights, among other things.
Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu recently said that 12 provinces have already carried out province-wide pilot programs for the confirmation, registration and certification of land contract management rights, and 2,160 counties have carried out county-wide pilot programs. As of the end of June this year, across the country, 350 million mu of contracted land had been actually measured, and 260 million mu had been confirmed. While confirming rights and issuing ironclad certificates for contracted land, farmers are effectively given a long-term reassuring pill: they can invest in the land and also transfer it with confidence, which is also the basis for developing various forms of appropriately scaled operations.
However, difficulties have also been encountered in advancing the confirmation and certification of rural land rights. According to Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group and director of its office, the term of the contract after confirmation, registration and certification is currently a very tangled technical issue. In some places, the contract certificate writes the words "long-term unchanged" in the column for the contract term, but there are still no specific provisions for this in law or in the system.
At present, relevant departments are studying and formulating the "Opinions on Implementing the Policy of Keeping the Rural Land Contracting Relationship Stable and Unchanged for a Long Time." According to several experts, the concept that "the rural land contracting relationship must remain stable and unchanged for a long time" was put forward at the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee. As the second round of contracting is about to expire, making corresponding institutional arrangements in accordance with new policies, especially the provisions made after revised laws, is a topic that must be given priority at this stage.
Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Rural Economic System and Operation Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, also said in an earlier interview with reporters that regarding what is meant by the "long-term unchanged" land contracting relationship and its legal expression, the Ministry of Agriculture is, in accordance with the requirements of the central government, working with relevant departments to form opinions and reports.
Property rights: collective property rights will be converted into shares and quantified
As an important form of socialist public ownership, reform of the rural collective property rights system is also a "major highlight" in China's rural areas during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.
The reporter previously learned that the government is studying and formulating the "Opinions on Promoting the Reform of the Rural Collective Property Rights System," with the focus on clarifying the ownership of collective property rights and giving farmers more property rights. While deepening the reform of the rural land system, it will also advance by category the confirmation of collective assets to households and the reform of the share cooperative system, requiring that rural collective operating assets be converted into shares and quantified to each member of the collective organization.
Among the 11 rural reform pilot programs currently deployed by the State Council, the pilot reform of the collective property rights system is an important part. It is understood that reform of the rural collective property rights system began 25 years ago. In the 1980s, in the Pearl River Delta region at the forefront of reform, the structure of rural community residents became increasingly complex, and at the same time contradictions in the management of collective assets and income distribution became prominent, so farmers took the initiative to carry out explorations and practices of property rights system reform with distinctive local characteristics. After the 1990s, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places also encountered the same problems and successively carried out reform pilots. At present, about 4.8% of village collectives nationwide have carried out such reforms.
It is reported that while land system reform gradually deepens, the rural collective property rights system will also advance by category the confirmation of collective assets to households and the reform of the share cooperative system. For collective operating assets, shares will be converted and quantified to organization members, and at the same time the management, supervision and income distribution systems for the "three assets" of rural collective funds, rural collective assets and rural collective resources will be improved.
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that rural collective operating assets worth several trillion yuan are a huge fortune for rural collective members. Although many areas already distribute dividends for the disposal of this property, few adopt the practice of collective conversion into shares and quantification. This is because, given the current imperfect property rights trading market, once collective members change, equity disputes may arise, and when converting shares, it is also easy for irregularities to occur because the power of village officials is too concentrated. But overall, converting shares and quantifying them can better solve the distribution problem after collective assets generate profits and better protect farmers' individual financial rights.
Price reform: reform of the price formation mechanism for agricultural products advances gradually
According to Han Changfu, the development direction during the "13th Five-Year Plan" is to advance agricultural modernization, transform the agricultural development model, continue to ensure food security and the supply of major agricultural products, take ensuring supply, ensuring income and ensuring ecology as the main tasks, continue to deepen reform, open up and innovate, improve policies, further consolidate the foundation of agriculture, maintain the good momentum of stable development of agriculture and rural areas, and provide strong foundational support and guarantees for economic and social development. Specifically, broadening channels for increasing farmers' income and promoting sustained and relatively rapid growth of farmers' income is one of the major topics, and every possible means must be used to improve agricultural operating efficiency, open up more employment channels for farmers, and keep the average annual growth rate of farmers' income at the good momentum of "two higher than."
The factor with the greatest impact on agricultural operating efficiency is the price of agricultural products, and its formation mechanism will also undergo major changes during the "13th Five-Year Plan period."
It is understood that regarding the next direction of agricultural product price reform, the state has decided to improve the price formation mechanism by "implementing policies by variety and advancing gradually," and to implement differentiated support policies for different varieties. Among them, it will improve and continue to implement the minimum purchase price policy for rice and wheat; in accordance with the principle of separating price from subsidy, continue to implement pilot target price reform for the two varieties of cotton and soybeans, focus on giving play to the decisive role of the market in price formation, guide production through market price signals, regulate supply and demand, and improve subsidy distribution methods; and for corn, which currently has a huge surplus, it will reform and improve its purchase and storage policy.
For many years, domestic grain prices have been supported by market-supporting purchases and temporary storage purchase prices, remaining high for a long time, and the price inversion of imported agricultural products has been severe. In 2014, China decided to pilot target price reform for cotton and soybeans in some regions, and next, at least two major varieties, corn and rapeseed, will also join the camp of market-oriented price reform.
In this regard, Song Hong, assistant director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that in previous years China's agricultural products relied mainly on purchase protection, inventories grew very quickly, and this also drove growth in domestic production. Because the international competitiveness of some of China's agricultural products and foreign restrictions on imports make it difficult to absorb them through large-scale exports, the pressure to digest accumulated inventories has become greater and greater, and liberalizing the prices of agricultural products is one way to solve the problem. However, the relationship between protecting farmers' interests and ensuring the smooth and effective operation of the market must be well coordinated.