The area of cultivated land transferred accounts for more than 30 percent of China's total contracted cultivated land

Entrusted by the State Council, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu reported to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the 27th on the situation of stabilizing and improving rural land contracting relations. Han Changfu pointed out that as of the end of last year, the area of household contracted cultivated land transferred nationwide was 403 million mu, an increase of 18.3 percent over 2013, and the transferred area accounted for 30.4 percent of the cultivated land area under household contracted operation.

“Rural land contracting relations have been further stabilized. The pilot registration and certification of rural land contractual management rights is being advanced in an orderly manner. Moderate-scale agricultural operation has further developed.” According to Han Changfu, as of the end of 2014, more than 230 million households nationwide had contracted nearly 1.33 billion mu of cultivated land, accounting for 92.8 percent of rural collective cultivated land, with 221 million contracts signed and 206 million land contractual management right certificates issued.

Han Changfu introduced that at present, the number of provinces carrying out pilot registration and certification of contractual management rights across the whole province has expanded to 12, and the remaining provinces have expanded the pilot scope on their own according to conditions. A total of 2,215 counties (cities, districts, banners) nationwide have successively carried out pilot work, involving 19,000 townships and 302,000 villages, with 260 million mu of land having completed registration and certification.

Han Changfu pointed out that as of the end of 2014, the number of households nationwide operating more than 50 mu of land exceeded 3.41 million, family farms exceeded 870,000, legally registered farmers' cooperatives reached 1.29 million, leading enterprises exceeded 120,000, and various types of agricultural socialized service organizations exceeded 1.15 million.

Regarding the current problems, Han Changfu particularly emphasized that the problems of “non-grain” and “non-agricultural” use in land transfer deserve vigilance, and that there is still a lack of effective preventive and supervisory measures against industrial and commercial capital using land illegally or in violation of regulations and wasting agricultural land resources.

Regarding the next steps, Han Changfu pointed out that pilot programs will be steadily carried out for the paid withdrawal of land contractual management rights by rural households that have settled in cities, and a mechanism for the paid withdrawal of contracted land will be explored and established; active exploration will be made of using the management rights of contracted land as shares to develop industrialized agricultural operations and improve the powers and functions of management rights; pilot programs for mortgage and guarantee of the management rights of contracted land will be carried out in an orderly manner; and local governments will be encouraged to explore, in accordance with the law, the establishment of supervision and risk prevention systems for industrial and commercial capital leasing agricultural land, forming effective institutional constraints and building a good fence against risks.