Land Rights Confirmation Launches a New Round of Rural Reform

Promoting the "separation of the three rights" of rural land, with rural land rights confirmation and registration as the foundation. Land rights confirmation is not only conducive to protecting farmers' rights and interests and increasing their property income, but can also promote large-scale agricultural operations and advance agricultural modernization and integrated urban-rural development. Rural land reform demonstrates the power of empowering farmers through land rights confirmation, adding new momentum to the development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers"

"Land rights confirmation will be expanded from 3 whole provinces to 12 whole provinces, and a large number of counties and cities are still conducting pilot programs." This information recently conveyed by relevant departments to the public has attracted people's attention. The confirmation and registration of land contractual management rights, which has already been rolled out across various regions, has opened the "gates" of a new round of rural reform.

The focus of the new round of rural land reform is, on the basis of stabilizing household contractual management rights, to promote the "separation of the three rights" of collective land ownership, farmers' contractual rights and land management rights, revitalize land production factors, and build a new type of agricultural management system. To promote the "separation of the three rights," rural land rights confirmation and registration is the foundation. The central government issued last year the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations," comprehensively launching land rights confirmation work, and this year's No. 1 Central Document laid out a clear roadmap.

Land rights confirmation protects farmers' rights and interests. "Only those with secure property can have perseverance." Since rural land contracting began, the state has allowed farmers to transfer land, but because rights confirmation, registration and certification were not strictly carried out, the ownership boundaries of contracted plots were unclear and contract areas were inaccurate. Land rights confirmation strengthens the real rights protection of contracted management rights over cultivated land and various other types of land, and is also an important means for the state to clearly define the attribution of land contractual management rights. At present, 13,000 townships and 195,000 villages have participated in pilot programs, covering an area of 330 million mu. In rural areas across the country, rights confirmation and registration have resolved a large number of long-accumulated rural land disputes and won broad recognition from grassroots communities.

At the same time, the door to farmers' land property rights is slowly opening. In the past, rural land and housing could not be mortgaged due to their collective nature. Land rights confirmation has stimulated the vitality of rural "sleeping assets." After rights confirmation, registration and certification, farmers can use the relevant certificates for mortgage loans. And once contracted land is expropriated, farmers can obtain corresponding compensation based on clear usufructuary rights, greatly increasing their property income.

Land rights confirmation has promoted large-scale agricultural operations and advanced agricultural modernization and integrated urban-rural development. With the contracted land rights confirmation and registration certificate in hand, more farmers have shed the burden of fearing losing their contracted land and can confidently go out to work, find employment, and settle in cities. More contracted land is being transferred out and accelerating toward new agricultural management entities such as specialized large households, family farms, and farmers' professional cooperatives. These new agricultural management entities can also confidently carry out large-scale operations and increase investment in land. At present, the total number of participants in land transfer is close to 60 million households, and the national proportion of contracted cultivated land transferred exceeds 28%.

From land rights confirmation, registration and certification, to guiding the orderly transfer of land, to reform of collective construction land such as homesteads, rural land reform demonstrates the power of empowering farmers through land rights confirmation, adding new momentum to the development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers."

This year's "Government Work Report" pointed out, "Do a good job in land rights confirmation, registration and certification, and prudently carry out pilot reforms in rural land expropriation, market entry of collective operational construction land, the homestead system, and the collective property rights system." According to requirements, the national land rights confirmation work must be fully completed within 5 years. It is believed that with the successive introduction of major central government measures and active practical exploration by various regions, under the premise of adhering to the three bottom lines of the cultivated land red line, grain output, and farmers' interests, the spring tide of a new round of land reform will surely arrive.