Advance moderate-scale operations according to local conditions, and do a good job of scale calculation

In recent years, with the rapid development of China's industrialization and urbanization, a large number of young and middle-aged rural laborers have long worked in cities as migrant workers, and a considerable portion of rural land is no longer managed within the family; land transfer has already become a new normal in rural society. To promote the healthy development of land transfer, the core issues lie in standardized and orderly transfer and moderate-scale operations.

Calculation of moderate scale

⟦NL> Standardized and orderly means that Party committees and governments at all levels are required to guide and direct land transfer, and cadres at the township and village levels are the direct organizers of land transfer. Some leading cadres believe that after land is contracted to households, how to operate the land is the farmers' own business; that is an erroneous view of being irresponsible and doing nothing.

Moderate-scale land operation is an essential requirement of economic laws. Family farms, specialized large households, farmers' cooperatives, and leading enterprises are the operating entities of land transfer, and the scale at which an operating entity operates land depends on its operating capacity. The scale of land operation is constrained by production factors such as funds, agricultural machinery and equipment, professional technology, and essential storage facilities. Only when the operating scale matches the capacity of the operating entity can it be called moderate-scale operation; exceeding operating capacity will be counterproductive. In practical work, blindly pursuing scale, like "a small horse pulling a big cart," will lead to poor management. If fixed asset investment is relatively large and the operating scale is relatively small, production factors such as assets cannot be rationally utilized, and benefits cannot be maximized.

According to our calculations of the production factors and operating scales of various operating entities in Tieling City, Liaoning Province, a family farm with 5 small sets of agricultural machinery and tools worth more than 200,000 yuan can guarantee an operating area of 500-1000 mu, and must have at least more than 70% of its own agricultural machinery and tools and 1-2 professional managers. The annual depreciation cost of fixed assets shared per mu is 30 yuan. In the relationship between the land operating scale of family farms and per-mu benefits, taking corn planting as an example, the calculation results show that a family farm needs fixed asset investment of 800,000 yuan and must transfer at least more than 250 mu of land to ensure profit. When the operating scale exceeds more than 1000 mu, per-mu benefits decline, and the optimal profit range is 800-1000 mu.

At present, the land transfer situation in Tieling City is getting better and better. In the past, most land transfer involved farmers subcontracting to each other, at low prices, contracted once a year, and in a state of disorderly transfer. In 2014, there was more organized and large-scale transfer; the whole city carried out organized land transfer of 1.56 million mu, accounting for 23% of the transfer proportion. In terms of transfer forms, the optimal methods of land shareholding and guaranteed dividends were gradually promoted. In terms of operating methods, operations became increasingly refined; some cooperatives divided land into several operation zones, assigned responsibilities, clarified duties, and paid according to output, so that various production factors were rationally allocated.

Main practices

Tieling City's main practices in promoting orderly land transfer and maintaining moderate-scale operations are as follows:

Establish a rural comprehensive property rights trading market to solve the problem of non-standard land transfer. Tieling City established a rural comprehensive property rights trading market, concentrating farmers' contracted land management rights, forest rights, the use rights of "four wastelands," agricultural production facilities and equipment, and so on into the rural comprehensive property rights trading market for listing and trading. This market is managed by the Tieling City Rural Comprehensive Property Rights Trading Center, providing venues, facilities, information release, organized trading, and property rights trading authentication for various rural property rights transactions. After authentication by the municipal rural comprehensive property rights trading service center, various property rights use certificates can be used for mortgage loans, forming a rural property rights trading model of "transaction-authentication-mortgage." Through a network platform, the municipal agricultural trading center is connected with large national agricultural trading centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and other places, releasing Tieling City's rural property rights trading information nationwide, promoting land transfer, and revitalizing various rural resources.

Increase policy support to solve the problem of insufficient momentum for land transfer. Guide comprehensive agricultural development, land consolidation, and other projects to be invested directly in farmers' cooperatives. For example, the Funong Rice Cooperative in Diaobingshan City developed paddy fields through a land consolidation project, growing from 1200 mu of land contributed as shares and 222 member households in 2009 to the current land operating area of 19,500 mu, 1400 member households, and 6 million yuan in fixed assets. Comprehensively promote the mortgage loan business for contracted land management rights; rural credit cooperatives, the Agricultural Bank, and the Postal Savings Bank promoted the Changtu County contracted land management rights mortgage loan model throughout the city to solve the difficulty operating entities face in obtaining loans. In 2014, the city's land transfer loans were 170 million yuan, of which contracted management rights mortgage loans were 122 million yuan. Actively strive for subsidy funds for large grain-growing households and support funds for cooperatives at or above the provincial level, with priority tilted toward land transfer.

Actively cultivate new operating entities to solve the problem of who will farm the land. Focus on cultivating new agricultural operating entities, give key support to cooperatives, family farms, large grain-growing households, and leading enterprises, and guide operating entities to carry out moderate-scale operations. Over the past few years, provincial and municipal support funds for cooperatives reached 50 million yuan, and the municipal government, despite very tight finances, set aside 3 million yuan each year for support. New agricultural operating entities have not only solved the problem of who will farm the land, but also increasingly taken on social management functions. With the assistance of the village committee, the Wanxin Rice Cooperative in Xintaizi Town, Tieling County transferred 4000 mu of land in Xisanjiazi Village for the whole village. After the transfer, field operation roads were rebuilt, small field ridges were removed to increase the land operation area by 160 mu, and land utilization was improved. Village roads, cultural squares, and field operation roads were all improved, and the appearance of formerly backward villages took on a completely new look.

In land transfer, Tieling City persisted in achieving orderly transfer and maintaining moderate-scale operations, and land transfer across the city achieved obvious results. Tieling City currently has 8.2 million mu of cultivated land, of which 6.81 million mu is household contracted cultivated land. In 2014, the city's land transfer area was 2.6 million mu, accounting for 38% of household contracted cultivated land area. Among this, 31 villages achieved whole-village scale transfer, and 48 villager groups achieved whole-group scale transfer, involving 13,000 households and 145,000 mu of cultivated land. Organized land transfer reached 1.56 million mu, and large grain-growing households, family farms, cooperatives, and leading enterprises all formed scale planting and achieved full-process mechanization. The full-process mechanization rate for rice reached 94%, and the full-process mechanization rate for corn was 78%.

Land transfer liberated surplus rural labor, and farmers' incomes increased noticeably. In 2014, the average land transfer price was around 700 yuan; farmers who simply rented out land could obtain land income of 10,500 yuan per household (15 mu × 700 yuan), plus 30,000 yuan in migrant work income. For farmers who contributed land as shares, the dividend income was around 900 yuan per mu. At the same time, land utilization and output rates were improved. After paddy field scale operations, breaking the original small field ridges of each household could increase effective planting area by about 4%; 1000 mu of land could increase planting area by 40 mu. Because of scale operations, new varieties and new technologies could be widely applied, increasing grain output. In 2014, for new operating entities represented by cooperatives, the average corn yield was 2000 jin per mu, and the average rice yield was 1400 jin per mu, 200 jin more per mu on average than scattered household operations.