How do family farms in China promote the moderate transfer of rural land?
Since entering the new century, with the continuous development of China's economy, the smallholder decentralized management model based on the household contract responsibility system can no longer well adapt to the needs of productive forces development, and moderate-scale operation has become an unavoidable path for China's future agricultural development. The "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights to Develop Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operation" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, points out that it is necessary to "focus on cultivating family farms that use family members as the main labor force, take agriculture as the main source of income, and engage in specialized and intensive agricultural production, so that they become a vital force leading moderate-scale operation and developing modern agriculture." This fully affirms the role of the family farm system in changing China's small and scattered agricultural operation pattern and enhancing agricultural vitality, and points out the direction for China's future path of agricultural modernization.
A family farm is a new type of microeconomic organization based on family operation that implements specialized production, socialized cooperation and scaled operation, and is an important organizational form of agricultural modernization. This model has developed rapidly in various developed and developing countries, and has evolved into different forms of expression.
At present, China's agriculture is in a historical period of profound industrial structural adjustment and profound rural change, and agricultural production organization methods that meet the requirements of moderate-scale operation and satisfy the needs of agricultural development are constantly emerging. Since the No. 1 Central Document of 2013 first mentioned family farms, various regions have continuously explored family farm development models, and five classic models have emerged: Ningbo in Zhejiang, Songjiang in Shanghai, Yanbian in Jilin, Wuhan in Hubei, and Langxi in Anhui. As of 2012, China had a total of 877,000 family farms, with an average scale of 200.2 mu and average income of 184,700 yuan. Overall, the development of family farms can effectively promote the moderate transfer of rural land from four aspects:
It helps standardize transfer procedures and protect farmers' rights and interests. The biggest difference between family farms and household farmers lies in whether they possess a certain capacity for resource management and coordination. Family farms have independent legal person status, and their operators have the management awareness of an independently operating enterprise legal person. Family farm owners will use legal means as much as possible to standardize the farm land transfer procedures and avoid affecting their own development due to land disputes. This measure by family farm owners also protects farmers' rights and interests and eliminates hidden dispute risks in transfer forms such as oral agreements and implicit operation.
It helps raise transfer prices and activate the transfer market. A family farm is the unity of agricultural production decision-maker and producer, can respond promptly to variable and uncontrollable production links, and can effectively improve agricultural production efficiency. At the same time, the family farm system can use forces such as family affection and morality to reduce production supervision costs and increase agricultural production returns. In order to obtain long-term economic profits, family farm owners have the incentive to raise transfer prices to stabilize land sources. At the same time, as the scale of family farms continues to expand, land has also become an important resource contested by various operators, which will further stimulate the transfer market and provide market support for establishing a standardized transfer platform.
It helps consolidate mutual trust and strengthen use supervision. The land leased by family farms is all obtained by operators through leasing based on relationships such as geographical and blood ties, and has mutual trust established through rural relations. At the same time, because of such rural relations, the land transferor can effectively supervise the use of the land they own. This adds another guarantee for supervising land use in addition to government monitoring.
It helps increase agricultural investment and develop modern agriculture. Family farms have relatively clear property rights, stable returns and dedicated assets, and compared with traditional farmers can more easily obtain support in technology, funds and other aspects for developing modern agriculture. At the same time, because of their integrated production and sales characteristics, family farms will bear relatively high breach costs when participating in market competition, which helps operators break free from the constraints of traditional smallholder opportunism, break through the limitations of traditional agriculture in awareness, and accelerate the process of China's agricultural modernization.
The production and operation model of family farms is relatively consistent with the needs of China's agricultural and rural development at the current stage, and because of its unique advantages, this system can make up for the deficiencies of other types of agricultural production models. However, at present, China's family farms are still in the initial stage, and the road of development has heavy responsibilities and a long way to go. The government and all sectors of society need to make efforts in the following aspects:
Accelerate the process of land confirmation. Clear land ownership is the basis of land transfer and also the cornerstone of family farm development, but farmers' unclear understanding of the ownership of land ownership rights, contracting rights and management rights has seriously affected the development of land transfer models. Land confirmation and the issuance of the "three certificates" (the right to use contracted land, the right to use homestead land, and the property right to houses built by farmers on homestead land, as well as the three certificates corresponding to the three rights) can effectively clarify property rights, strengthen farmers' awareness, enhance farmers' bargaining power in the land market, and provide important support for the moderate transfer of rural land and the development of family farms in China.
Improve the rural social security system. Due to the limitations of economic development in rural areas, rural social security is insufficient, and farmers, fearing the loss of land as their last guarantee, are unwilling to transfer the land they have contracted, which seriously hinders exploration of rural land transfer forms. Therefore, the government needs to further improve the social security system, perfect social assistance mechanisms, encourage the development of commercial insurance, relieve farmers' worries, and provide sufficient market supply for moderate land transfer.
Support the healthy development of family farms. The family farm system can effectively promote the moderate transfer of rural land and agricultural modernization, so the government can encourage the development of family farms through support in policies, funds and other aspects. The development of family farms requires a large amount of funds to meet the needs of agricultural infrastructure construction and modern agricultural input, but due to the limitations of the not yet perfect rural financial system, insufficient funds have become a bottleneck restricting the development of family farms in China. To this end, the government needs to accelerate the process of turning land property rights into real rights and improve rural financial mechanisms such as mortgage, guarantee and credit, so as to solve the financing difficulties of family farm operators.
Establish an agricultural socialized service system. At present, the overall level of China's agricultural socialized service system is still relatively low, its construction is relatively lagging, and there is a certain deviation between service content and production needs. The backward socialized service system has become a key restrictive factor for the faster and better development of China's family farms. Therefore, the government and all sectors of society should work together to establish and improve China's agricultural socialized service system, and provide agriculture, rural areas and farmers with the needed all-round services such as agricultural science and technology research and development, agricultural product supply and marketing, agricultural credit, and vertical integration operations, so as to promote the development of the specialized production model of family farms.