Specific Plan for New Farmland Contract Term to Be Proposed; Collective Property Rights to Be Converted into Shares
On October 14, a land subsoiler was operating in the fields of Wanlong Village, Huancheng Township, Yushu City, Jilin Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Nan
With the 17th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms on October 13 deliberating and approving the "Opinions on Further Advancing the Reform and Development of Agricultural Reclamation," another reform plan aimed at introducing market-based elements 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. A reporter from the Economic Information Daily has 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 concerning the rural land system, the collective property rights system, and the agricultural product price formation mechanism will be studied and formulated. The common feature of these reforms is that, by introducing market-based elements, they aim to give farmers more property rights.
Land Reform: Implementing the Long-Term Stability of Farmland Contract Relations
The reform of the rural land system will continue to be deepened during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. It is reported that in deepening the reform of the rural land contractual management system, the government will step up revision of the Land Administration Law, the Rural Land Contract Law and other laws, and will propose specific plans in due course on the measures for extending cultivated land contracts after the second round of contracting expires and on the new contract term. Regarding collective land, on the basis of basically completing the confirmation of ownership of rural collective land, it will accelerate the confirmation of use rights for homestead land and collective construction land; and it will carry out pilot projects in areas with the necessary conditions for the paid withdrawal of land contract rights.
Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu recently said that 12 provinces have already carried out province-wide pilot projects to confirm, register and certify land contractual management rights, and 2,160 counties have carried out county-wide pilot projects. By the end of June this year, the country had completed actual measurement of 350 million mu of contracted land, with 260 million mu of rights confirmed. While confirming rights and issuing ironclad certificates for contracted land, farmers are effectively given a long-term reassurance and can invest in the land and transfer it with confidence, which is also the foundation for developing moderate-scale operations in various forms.
However, difficulties have also been encountered in advancing the confirmation, registration and certification of farmland rights. According to Chen Xiwen, deputy head and director of the office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, the term of contract after confirmation, registration and certification is currently a very vexing technical issue. In some places, the contract certificate states "long-term stability" in the contract term column, 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 Long-Term Stability of Rural Land Contract Relations." According to several experts, the concept that "rural land contract relations should 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 provisions made after revised laws, is an issue that must be given priority at this stage.
Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Rural Economic System and Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, also said in an earlier interview with a reporter from the Economic Information Daily that regarding what "long-term stability" in land contract relations means and how it should be legally expressed, 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 to Be Converted into Shares
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.
A reporter from the Economic Information Daily previously learned that the government is studying and formulating the "Opinions on Advancing 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 reform of the shareholding cooperative system, requiring that rural collective operating assets be converted into shares and quantified for each member of the collective organization.
Among the 11 rural reform pilot projects currently deployed by the State Council, 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 and income distribution of collective assets became prominent, so farmers proactively carried out explorations and practices of property rights system reform with distinctive local characteristics. After the 1990s, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places encountered the same problems and successively carried out reform pilot projects. At present, about 4.8% of village collectives nationwide have already carried out such reforms.
It is reported that as land system reform gradually deepens, the rural collective property rights system will also advance by category the confirmation of collective assets to households and reform of the shareholding cooperative system. For collective operating assets, shares will be converted and quantified to organization members, and the management, supervision and income distribution systems for rural collective funds, rural collective assets and rural collective resources, the so-called "three assets," 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 trillions of yuan are a huge fortune for rural collective members. Although many areas already distribute dividends from these assets, 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 cadres is overly concentrated. But overall, converting shares and quantifying them can better solve the distribution problem after collective assets generate profits and better protect farmers' individual fiscal rights.
Price Reform: Reform of the Agricultural Product Price Formation Mechanism 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, with ensuring supply, ensuring income and ensuring ecology as the main tasks, continue to deepen reform, explore and innovate, improve policies, further consolidate the foundational position 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' incomes and promoting sustained and relatively rapid growth of farmers' incomes is one of the major issues, 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' incomes at the good momentum of "two highers."
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, it will continue to implement pilot target price reform for cotton and soybeans, pay attention to giving play to the decisive role of the market in price formation, guide production through market price signals, adjust supply and demand, and improve subsidy distribution methods; and for corn, which currently has an enormous surplus, it will reform and improve its purchase and storage policy.
For many years, domestic grain prices have remained high for a long time because they were supported by market-supporting purchases and temporary storage purchase prices, and the price inversion of imported agricultural products has been severe. In 2014, China decided to carry out 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 were mainly protected through purchase, inventories grew rapidly, and this also drove growth in domestic production. Because of the international competitiveness of some of China's agricultural products and foreign restrictions on imports, it is also difficult to absorb them through large-scale exports, and the pressure to digest accumulated inventories has become increasingly large, so liberalizing agricultural product prices 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.