Land transfer should allow farmers to "wait and see"; it cannot be rushed

Everything must proceed from reality, and especially for a major matter like land transfer, it must not be divorced from the real conditions of rural areas and the real capabilities of farmers.

Large-scale farming is something new to many "new farmers"; as large-scale growers, everyone is doing it for the first time, and it cannot simply be understood as "one sheep is grazed, and a flock of sheep is grazed the same way."

County, township and village officials must be extremely patient and meticulous, and must distinguish between the different circumstances of large-scale growers and ordinary farming households. They must actively guide while also working carefully and waiting patiently; when conditions are not yet ripe, there is no harm in "waiting and seeing."

The Spring Equinox has passed, and grain growers are even busier. These past few days, Chen Dongke, a large-scale grower in Pingtou Village, Liuyang, Hunan, has just finished the work of soaking seeds and raising seedlings. Chen Dongke is a "newly minted" large-scale grain grower; he only began renting land last year, renting a total of 120 mu. This year he expanded the scale a bit more, reaching 180 mu. Chen Dongke had always grown fruit trees before and had saved up a little money. Village officials said that given his circumstances, there would be no problem in directly expanding the scale several times over. But Chen Dongke believed that his experience in growing grain was still insufficient and that renting land was not so easy either, so he wanted to wait and see a while longer.

Chen Dongke's "wait and see" offers a very good way of thinking for the current effort to promote moderate-scale rural land operation. In recent years, promoting moderate-scale operation through land transfer has been one of the key tasks in rural areas. In order to speed up progress, some places have even set target-style requirements such as how many large-scale growers to cultivate and how much land to transfer in a year. When inspections from higher levels or reporter interviews come up, they often add some water and exaggerate the progress. This desire to rush progress is understandable, but everything must proceed from reality, and especially for a major matter like land transfer, it must not be divorced from the real conditions of rural areas and the real capabilities of farmers.

What are those real conditions? For large-scale growers, of course, generally speaking, the bigger the scale, the better. But when it comes down to each individual large-scale grower, the harvest is roughly the same, yet the troubles are all different, and every large-scale grower will go through different storms. In Shandong there was a large-scale grower who used to run a restaurant in the city and later, as a "returning capable person," rented land to grow grain. With the encouragement and support of local officials, he rented 1,500 mu of land in one go. But he himself did not know how to farm, so he could only ask others to do it for him. The people doing it for him were not very diligent, and on top of that the rent was too high. He lost money the first year, and by the second year it was already hard to continue.

Such situations are not uncommon. Looking across different places, many large-scale growers have experience working or doing business, understand the market, and have a certain amount of accumulated capital and ability to withstand risk. But large-scale farming is something new to many "new farmers"; as large-scale growers, everyone is doing it for the first time, and it cannot simply be understood as "one sheep is grazed, and a flock of sheep is grazed the same way." From selecting seeds, to resisting pests and weeds, guarding against wind, rain, and snow, and even land leveling, every link faces tests and carries certain risks. Therefore, large-scale growers do not have to set off at a gallop and cover a thousand li in a day; like Chen Dongke, thinking it over, "waiting and seeing," accumulating experience, and advancing step by step, it may be better to act only when conditions are ripe.

For ordinary farming households, "waiting and seeing" may be even more in line with reality. When some people encounter farmers unwilling to rent out land during land transfer, they conclude that farmers are backward in their thinking and difficult to deal with, and even want to "use a few tricks." In fact, it is not that farmers are difficult to deal with, but that each has their own circumstances and every household has its own hard scripture to recite. Chen Dongke's fellow villager Li Wenqi is willing to farm his own 4-plus mu of land. His two children work in the city, and one has settled down there. He and his wife are just over 60, and being idle is still being idle.

This is the current situation of ordinary farming households. Some, though gradually growing older, are not yet very old and are still in good health; farming a bit of land themselves also lets them move around, and with their children working or doing business, or working in the city, the pressure of life is not great, so farming has already become a way of life. Some still face certain life pressures, and farming themselves brings a somewhat higher income than renting the land to others, so they are unwilling to rent it out. Some farm simply for self-sufficiency and so their own family can eat with peace of mind. Others, because their contracted land has not been confirmed, registered, and certified, worry that after renting it out they will not be able to get it back. In addition, as the level of mechanization and rural socialized services keeps rising, farming is becoming more worry-free and labor-saving, so they lack the willingness and motivation for land transfer.

The circumstances differ, and the reasoning is self-evident. Whether large-scale growers or ordinary farming households, everyone goes through a process of gradually understanding, gradually accepting, and gradually adapting to land transfer. Recognizing this is especially important for the current effort to guide and encourage moderate-scale rural land operation. This requires county, township and village officials to be extremely patient and meticulous, to distinguish between the different circumstances of large-scale growers and ordinary farming households, and to actively guide while also working carefully and waiting patiently. When conditions are not yet ripe, there is no harm in "waiting and seeing"; when conditions are ripe, things will naturally fall into place and proceed smoothly.

Moderate-scale land operation is the direction of modern agriculture, but the process cannot be rushed. At times like this, "waiting and seeing" is for the sake of better and more stable development.