Tighten the Regulatory Fence Around Industrial and Commercial Capital Rushing to the Countryside to Enclose Land

Hunan Takes Aim at Illegal Land Enclosure by Enterprises

For days now, in the Tianyang Ecological Agriculture Industrial Park in Sandu Village, Sandu Town, Zixing City, Hunan, workers have been busy putting protective bags on grapes about to hit the market. It is understood that this place was originally a 500-mu wasteland that had lain fallow for 10 years. To change this situation, Zixing City brought in a project, transferred the wasteland for grape planting and deep processing, and also boosted the agricultural sightseeing industry, with farmers' incomes increasing year by year.

A few days ago, in Hongwei Village, Huangshajie Town, Yueyang County, Hunan Province, Yang Li, chairman of Hunan Yangli Agricultural Trade Co., Ltd., once again came here with funds and a “high-efficiency agriculture” project. More than 2,000 mu of barren sloping land will take on new vitality after land consolidation and development.

Should the more than 2,000 mu of land be used for cooperation with other enterprises for non-agricultural development? Or should it be used to develop high-efficiency agriculture? The former offers fast financing and quick profits, while the latter has a long cycle and slow returns. As a deputy to the National People's Congress, Yang Li chose the latter. She decided to plant high-efficiency cash crops such as yellow gardenia, develop the barren sloping land into an “ecological high-efficiency agriculture demonstration park,” and lead farmers to increase their incomes and become prosperous through “new agriculture.”

In Hunan, like “Yangli Agricultural Trade,” more enterprises firmly take the path of agricultural development when they go to the countryside and into villages to transfer land. But a small number of enterprises still carry industrial and commercial capital to “go to the countryside and enclose land,” engaging in non-agricultural and non-grain operations.

Canceling policy support, recovering illegally developed land, and ruling on illegal and criminal acts…… Hunan is taking various effective measures to “draw its sword” against acts that encroach on agricultural production land, and to punish enterprises that transfer rural land for non-agricultural and non-grain purposes.

Implementing the “Three-Field System”: Enterprises Going to the Countryside “Have Land to Rent,” Farmers “Have Land to Use”

A few places manipulate land in disguised forms under the name of large-scale land management, leading to non-grain and non-agricultural phenomena in rural land transfer. How can it be ensured that enterprises going to the countryside “have land to rent” while also guaranteeing that farmers “have land to use”? The Quyuan Management District of Yueyang City, Hunan Province, implements the “three-field system” to ensure there are no mishaps in farmland protection.

Quyuan Management District is a large state-owned farm, and farmers there have relatively more land per capita. The district divides land under the “three-field system”: first, the 1-mu-per-capita grain ration field remains unchanged; second, the operational field contracted by farmers, accounting for about 80% of the cultivated land area; third, the commodity field of collective land in townships, towns and villages used for transfer, accounting for about 20% of the cultivated land area. Commodity fields are used to adjust for population changes and land needed for major projects, and can also be used for transferred large-scale operations. Operational fields are concentrated among large operators through commercial operation methods such as leasing, subcontracting and land shareholding.

Li Minghui, director of the office of the Quyuan District National Modern Agriculture Demonstration Zone, said: “On the one hand, grain ration fields and operational fields guarantee that farmers have land to use, and whether to transfer or rent it out depends entirely on the people's will; on the other hand, commodity fields ensure that large operators have land to rent, making it easier to support large grain-growing households and other new agricultural operators in large-scale operations and mechanized farming.”

Large Operators Lead the Way in Farming Wholeheartedly: Grain-Producing Areas Strictly Guard Against “Going to the Countryside to Enclose Land”

Large grain-growing operator Yang Yueqiu is a beneficiary of the “three-field system.” Since recent years, especially since the central government loosened rural land management rights, as of this year, Yang Yueqiu's land transfer area has reached more than 14,000 mu.

Successfully transferring so much land once brought Yang Yueqiu worries as well: first, what should so much land be used for? Then, to develop large-scale operations, where would the money come from?

In 2014, several investors came to him on their own initiative to discuss cooperation and intended to take his enterprise public. Faced with the “money” delivered to his door, Yang Yueqiu realized that while his enterprise was not yet mature, standardized or strong enough, if he rashly cooperated and went public, he would not be able to control the enterprise's leadership or grasp its business direction. Therefore, he worried that capital invested would chase big profits, while grain growing has relatively low returns. What if the investor changed the use of the land away from grain growing?

After thinking it over, Yang Yueqiu decided to give up the cooperation and resolutely use the vast majority of the fields to grow rice, with only a very small part used for vegetable planting and developing sightseeing and leisure agriculture. To solve the funding shortage, he sought local financial sector support for land transfer and took short-term loans from enterprises in the industrial chain related to his grain growing. In 2014, he took short-term loans of more than 7 million yuan, and repaid them quickly once the grain harvest was sold.

Like Yang Yueqiu, Yang Li, as a modern agriculture large operator in Quyuan District, also uses all her land to develop modern agriculture. But unlike Yang Yueqiu, Yang Yueqiu mainly transfers paddy fields to grow rice, while Yang Li mainly transfers barren hills and wasteland to grow seedlings. Yang Li has contracted more than 8,000 mu of forest land and fields in Quyuan District and surrounding districts and counties. For example, Leishi Mountain is located by the shore of Dongting Lake, and industrial and commercial capital took a fancy to the location advantage of this mountain land and wanted to cooperate in developing tourism, but Yang Li politely declined: “Planting cash crops such as yellow gardenia can both protect the ecological environment and develop high-efficiency agriculture.”

Targeting Illegal Land Occupation by Enterprises: Investigate Every Case Found, Punish Every Case, Never Tolerate It

The state strictly prohibits industrial and commercial enterprises from illegally leasing rural land for non-agricultural construction under the name of “leasing and transfer.” However, a small number of enterprises still enclose land under various names and illegally carry out non-agricultural construction, affecting farmland protection and harming farmers' interests.

Wangcheng District is a new urban district of Changsha, Hunan, committed to building a world capital of leisure agriculture and rural tourism, but it has also encountered the awkward problem of “land abuse and loss of cultivated land.” A few days ago, the People's Court of Wangcheng District, Changsha City, tried a case of “illegal occupation of agricultural land.”

According to the Wangcheng District People's Procuratorate, on August 3, 2013, a granite company in Wangcheng District, without approval from the land department and under the authorization of its legal representative Zhu, had its shareholder Zhang sign a “land transfer contract” without authorization with the Zhujiachong Group of Hongjia Village, Qiaoyi Town, leasing 10.62 mu of basic farmland at “Aobeipo” in Zhujiachong Group. Without going through any procedures, the company used an excavator to level the farmland and set up a production line.

Appraisal found that the degree of damage to the cultivated land quality was “especially serious.” On July 15, 2014, the People's Procuratorate of Wangcheng District, Changsha, approved the arrest of Zhang on suspicion of the crime of illegal occupation of agricultural land. A few days ago, this case was decided, and the relevant personnel were punished according to law.