How to properly grasp the principles and pace of land reform

Recently, the Management Cadre College of the Ministry of Agriculture held the third national rotation training class for county directors of agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries this year, with a total of 108 participants, including agriculture (rural economy) directors from major agricultural counties across the country and cadres from the Ministry of Agriculture system. This round of training organized more than 10 expert lectures, case analyses, special seminars and on-site teaching sessions, and held special discussions on key issues such as how to implement the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land and Developing Moderate-Scale Operations," the work of confirming and issuing certificates for rural land contractual management rights, rural land transfer, the supervision of industrial and commercial capital in land transfer and risk prevention, and the content of the "Rural Land Contract Law" that needs to be revised.

Land system reform is an important system that affects the long-term stability of China's rural areas. In this key year of comprehensively deepening reform, land system reform is the top priority of rural work in various regions. At present, the area of China's cultivated land under transfer has already approached 30%, with nearly 400 million mu of land being transferred, rising by about 3 percentage points every year. Under the relatively fast speed of land transfer, it is very important to properly grasp the pace of land transfer and moderate-scale operations.

Inconsistencies between the second round of extended contracts and surveyed areas, repeated adjustments to cultivated land area in some places…… The directors paid attention to all aspects of the work of confirming and issuing certificates and clearly sorted out the problems existing in their localities to resolve them one by one. Ge Yangchun, director of the Agriculture Committee of Xuanzhou District, Anhui Province, said: "In the confirmation and issuance of certificates, different places will encounter different problems. In response to problems of different types, different households and different regions, our district sorted out 37 problems. These problems cannot be solved according to a single model. We formulated an implementation plan, adhered to steady progress and tackling the easy ones first before the difficult ones, and the key is to safeguard farmers' interests, resolving problems within the village and group as much as possible."

Land is the lifeblood of farmers. The directors generally believe that land system reform concerns farmers' concrete interests and must be advanced actively and steadily, "not by serving half-cooked rice," and must not make irreversible mistakes.

Should rights be confirmed by land or by shares? How should the scope of confirming rights by shares without confirming land be delineated? The directors took turns describing the practices of confirming rights in their counties and cities. Li Chunfeng, deputy director of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau of Bairin Left Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, believes: "Because facility agriculture has transferred land for a relatively long time, boundaries become unclear, or the compensation for land requisitioned through urbanization needs to be divided into shares among collective economic members. This requires confirming rights by shares without confirming land." Li Ruiqiu, director of the Agriculture and Finance Bureau of Zhao County, Hebei Province, introduced the process of confirming rights for more than 200,000 mu of collectively owned pear orchards in the county: "If all land were confirmed to each household, it would be too fragmented, so the plan is to confirm rights by land for cultivated land and confirm rights by shares for pear tree land."

How should land transfer be carried out? "The government should not push excessively. It should develop voluntarily among farmers according to economic development and market demand. The government should attach importance to supporting new types of business entities," said Song Dongliang, deputy director of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau of Raoyang County, Hebei Province. "The key reason for the insufficient development momentum of new types of business entities is insufficient funds," said Ge Yangchun. Many places have established guarantee companies. Liu Xiangyang, director of the Management Committee of the Tangshan National Agricultural Science and Technology Park in Hebei Province, said: "We established a guarantee company, including land contractual management rights, forest rights, and some facility agriculture and livestock products in the scope of collateral, set a one-year guarantee cycle, and provided financing guarantees when problems arise in the capital chain of new types of business entities."

"What we need to guard against is risk, not industrial and commercial capital," said Hu Liangwan, director of the Rural Development Bureau of Wenjiang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. "In the plans for industrial and commercial capital to enter agricultural projects, we must strictly check. Only those engaged in agricultural work can enter. We must establish an information feedback mechanism for dynamically grasping the situation. Local competent departments, including townships and village communities, must have a dynamic understanding of how its operations are actually doing. We must also establish a risk warning mechanism and strengthen market risk warnings for the industries in which it engages. As for rent, we must adhere to paying once a year, and on a regular basis. If payment is not clear, measures must be taken."

The revision of the "Land Contract Law" is also one of the contents that the directors focused on. Gong Bingji, deputy director of the Agriculture Bureau of Laixi City, Shandong Province, believes that land contracting can adopt the method of long-term holding, and it would be best to have a clear statement on this long-term holding. Many directors paid attention to how the separation of the three rights should be stipulated in the Land Contract Law. Qian Wen, deputy secretary of the Rural Work Committee of Daxing District, Beijing, said: "The Land Contract Law should be centered on the separation of the three rights. Whether management rights are property rights or creditor's rights should be clearly stipulated in law, so that land contractual management rights can be clearly defined during implementation."

When summarizing the discussion of his group, Li Chunfeng said: "This rotation training class came at just the right time. It is just that the time felt a bit short. I hope there can be more time to discuss the problems clearly." Gai Lihong, director of the Economic Management Bureau of Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, said: "There are some counties and cities that have done well, and we have always wanted to learn from them. This training class provided us with an opportunity to connect with each other."