Several Key Issues That Must Be Clarified in Farmland Transfer

To advance the reform of the rural land management system, farmers must be made active participants in and true beneficiaries of land transfer and scaled-up operation. To this end, issues such as the weighting of value and the placement of policy-based benefits after the separation of the “three rights” to farmland must be clarified.

As rural reform continues to advance, farmland transfer has been carried out in full swing in many places. However, judging from what has already taken place, some localities still have problems in farmland transfer such as vague concepts, lack of oversight, low efficiency, and inflexible mechanisms. The abandonment of farmland and waste of cultivated land occur from time to time, and hoarding of farmland and “underground” transactions have not been eliminated; in some cases this has even led to the “de-agriculturalization” of farmland and the “de-grainization” of grain fields, affecting agricultural efficiency and farmers' income.

⟦NL> To advance the reform of the rural land management system, it is necessary to uphold collective ownership of rural land, realize the separation of the three rights of rural land ownership, contracting rights, and management rights, guide the orderly transfer of land management rights, and make farmers active participants in and true beneficiaries of land transfer and scaled-up operation. To this end, several issues must be clarified.

First, the weighting of value after the separation of the “three rights” to farmland must be clarified. In essence, the value of land is embodied in three aspects: ownership, contracting rights, and management rights. Under the premise of collective ownership of farmland, farmers' rights and interests are contracting rights and management rights. Farmland transfer is in fact the transfer of land management rights. Therefore, when determining the price of land transfer, it can only be determined according to the weight of land management rights. At present, land transfer practices such as “underground transactions” that exist in some rural areas, and so-called “one-time buyouts” between farmers or between the two parties to a transaction, do not conform to policy requirements.

Second, the placement of policy-based benefits must be clarified. At present, many policy-based subsidies follow farmland contracting and management rights. After the separation of farmland contracting rights and management rights, whether these benefits are subsidized to contracting rights or management rights must be implemented at specific stages in accordance with policy requirements. Benefits such as these, in accordance with the principle of safeguarding farmers' interests, should be determined as returns on farmland contracting rights.

Third, the risk obligations borne under farmland rights and interests must be clarified. In some places, when farmland water conservancy infrastructure is built, responsibilities and obligations are assigned to the fields. Under the premise of the separation of contracting rights and management rights, whether responsibilities and obligations are borne by the contracting party or the operating party, which party owns the assets formed, and how they are to be disposed of once the transfer period expires, all these issues should be clarified and handled in accordance with laws and regulations.

Fourth, farmland protection responsibilities must be clarified. Farmland transfer cannot change the nature of farmland, nor can it reduce its original quality. In farmland protection, farmland operators should be the main focus, while contractors also have the same rights and obligations to protect farmland and ensure that farmland is not damaged.

The author believes that advancing the transfer of farmland management rights requires efforts in the following aspects. First, further increase policy publicity so that farmers truly understand and master it; second, accelerate the construction of markets and platforms for the transfer of farmland management rights; third, fully recognize the complexity and difficulty of the related work, analyze the specific problems existing in local farmland rights confirmation and transfer, formulate practical and feasible guiding opinions that conform to reality, provide classified guidance, and advance reform; fourth, investigate and sort out the problems existing in farmland transfer, and resolve all kinds of contradictions and problems in the bud.