How should a farm be sited? Choose wrong, and at best you'll be demolished, at worst you'll be arrested
Nowadays, whether they want to raise pigs or intend to expand their farming operation, owners are constantly plagued by land issues. In the past, the farming industry had not yet reached scale; raising pigs was about covering daily living expenses, and the illegal actions of small households drew no attention. But after a large number of small farms were shut down, the emergence and growth of scaled farming brought the industry gradually onto a corporate and legal track, and the conflict between the farming industry and land laws and policies became increasingly prominent. So how should a farm be sited?
Besides the prohibition on building farms in tourism areas, nature reserves, water source protection areas and areas with serious environmental pollution, and other no-breeding zones, the nature of the land and its planning are equally important, and these must be understood before choosing a site, otherwise they will bring catastrophic losses to the pig farm.
When choosing a site, the first thing to understand is the nature of the land; this is a crucial point that is also easily overlooked. When choosing land for a pig farm, we must be careful not to choose basic farmland. This is because the state applies a protection policy to basic farmland and does not allow its use to be changed. Once it is built on, someone will come forward to clear it, and by then it will be too late for regret.
When choosing a site, you should also understand the short-term and long-term plans for that plot and the surrounding plots, to avoid the chosen site conflicting with other major development projects of the government in the future. Nowadays, in many places, because of rapid economic development, what used to be the inner suburbs, or even the outer suburbs, of cities have within a few years become lined with high-rise buildings and turned into development zones, residential areas, commercial districts, industrial zones and so on, and pig farms have had to relocate to more remote places, or even become unable to continue farming because no suitable site could be found.
To understand these things, first, go to the competent government land department in the area where the land is located and check the cadastre of that plot; second, go to the government planning department to look at the land planning.
Basic farmland must not be touched
Even if the land is no longer being farmed, occupying basic farmland to raise pigs is still a red line. The state protects basic farmland extremely strictly; it is not only included in the performance assessment of leading officials, but occupying basic farmland also requires approval from the State Council. Those who illegally occupy more than five mu of basic farmland, or more than ten mu of cultivated land other than basic farmland, are subject to criminal liability.
Basic farmland on mountains or on barren beaches is also a kind of practical awkwardness that currently has to be faced. When the State Council required township-level designation of basic farmland, many grassroots governments, for various reasons, designated quite a lot of remote mountain land as basic farmland. Over the years, with the advance of urbanisation, many farmers have left the fields in remote mountain corners and around pig farms abandoned, so that this basic farmland has already grown trees, and such land cannot be used either.
It is strictly forbidden to build any breeding community in basic farmland. However, because in some places, when there are no idle beaches, wasteland or general cultivated land available for use, it is common to plan scaled breeding communities within basic farmland, especially in areas where the land is relatively flat, and this brings great difficulties to land management work. In such cases, farms dare not report, and the land departments are unwilling to take charge; the reality of the situation contradicts the policy of the time. But if you want to report and build a pig farm on basic farmland, the land department will certainly not approve it.
Land for pig-farming ancillary facilities must not exceed 7%
The "Classification of Current Land Use" defines land for ancillary facilities as: within an agricultural project area, land for facilities that directly assist agricultural production. It includes: 1. land for management and living housing, i.e. land for inspection, quarantine and monitoring, prevention and control of animal and plant diseases and pests, offices and living quarters, and other facilities required as supporting facilities in facility agricultural production; 2. land for warehouses, i.e. land for necessary sites for storing agricultural products, agricultural materials, feed, agricultural machinery and tools, and for sorting and packaging agricultural products; 3. land for hardened drying yards, sites for producing biomass fertiliser, roads that comply with the provisions on “rural roads”, and so on.
In order to prohibit some very large farming enterprises from using pig farming as a pretext for real estate development, the "Notice" provides that the scale of land for ancillary facilities of scaled livestock and poultry farming shall in principle be controlled within 7% of the project land scale (among which the proportion of land for ancillary facilities of scaled cattle and sheep farming shall be controlled within 10%), and shall not exceed 15 mu at most. If the scale of land for ancillary facilities exceeds the above proportions, procedures for changing the nature of the land and for approval of construction land must be completed, and a high land transfer fee must be paid.
Illegally occupying five mu of forest land means prison
Farms are usually located in mountain gullies, surrounded by either mountains or trees. With the gradual development of the farming business, the surrounding forest land has also become the first choice for pig farm expansion. But Article 67 of the "Provisions of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security on the Standards for Filing and Prosecuting Criminal Cases under the Jurisdiction of Public Security Organs" clearly states that illegally occupying five mu of forest land already entails criminal punishment.
How can forest land be used legally? According to Article 18 of the "Forest Law", for surveying and mining mineral deposits and for all kinds of construction projects, forest land should not be occupied, or should be occupied as little as possible; where forest land must be occupied or requisitioned, after examination and consent by the competent forestry department of the people's government at or above the county level, procedures for approval of construction land shall be completed in accordance with the relevant laws and administrative regulations on land management, and the land-using unit shall pay the forest vegetation restoration fee in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State Council.
What should be done when a pig farm urgently needs land?
The word "no-breeding" hangs over farmers' heads like a knife. As environmental protection policies for the farming industry become stricter, the closure and relocation of livestock and poultry farms in no-breeding zones have entered the final countdown. Whether by forced demolition or democratic decision-making, both have dealt a huge blow to farmers.
Some farmers wonder whether they can reclaim wasteland to continue completing their great farming enterprise. And the wasteland they reclaim themselves, whose is it in the end? Do they need to pay land rent, how many years can legally reclaimed wasteland be used, and does reclaimed wasteland qualify for subsidies? These questions fill everyone's minds.
It turns out that the ownership of reclaimed land in rural areas still belongs to the rural collective organisation, and its ownership does not belong to individuals, so it cannot enjoy the same rights as contracted land. First we must determine whether the reclamation is legal or illegal. State-owned wasteland is contracted out to outsiders according to market conditions, while village collective wasteland will also, under certain conditions, be contracted out in the normal contracting form; as long as farmers spend money and labour when reclaiming wasteland, the village collective will give priority to contracting it to you and charge an appropriate contracting fee.
In addition, according to Article 17 of the "Rules for the Implementation of the Land Administration Law": where undeveloped state-owned barren mountains, wasteland and barren beaches whose land use rights have not been determined are developed for crop farming, forestry, animal husbandry or fishery production, upon approval according to law by the people's government at or above the county level, they may be determined for long-term use by the developing unit or individual, and the period of use shall not exceed 50 years at most. Legally reclaimed wasteland in the normal way can be used for 50 years!
At the same time, according to the "National Land Classification" formulated by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the "Request for Instructions on How to Handle Land Occupied for Farming": farming land belongs to agricultural land, and building farming houses on it does not constitute an act of changing the land use; occupying cultivated land other than basic farmland to engage in farming no longer requires approval as construction land or temporary land. The production and operation autonomy of the land contractor should be fully respected; as long as the cultivated layer of the cultivated land is not destroyed and the cultivation conditions are not destroyed, the land contractor may independently decide to use the cultivated land for farming.
So where should a pig farm be built, and what issues should be noted?
Recommendations:
1. Pig farms should make as much use as possible of unused land such as barren hills and slopes and tidal flats, and of low-efficiency idle land;
2. Pig farms should not occupy cultivated land, or should occupy as little as possible, and are strictly forbidden to occupy basic farmland;
3. Where cultivated land really must be occupied, poor-quality cultivated land should be used as much as possible, avoiding indiscriminate occupation of high-quality cultivated land;
4. Through engineering, technical and other measures, minimise damage to the cultivated layer;
5. Newly built, rebuilt or expanded scaled livestock and poultry farms must strictly implement the environmental impact assessment and the “three simultaneities” system. The three simultaneities system refers to the system under which, for all construction projects that have an impact on the environment, their environmental protection facilities must be designed, constructed and put into operation and use at the same time as the main project.