How Local Governments Should Adapt Under the New Normal of the New Three Rural Policies

Rural land transfer and appropriately scaled operation are the core content of deepening rural reform, and represent another innovation in the land system following the implementation of the household contract responsibility system in rural areas. They are both a strategic measure for promoting the transformation of traditional agriculture into modern agriculture, and a core pathway for safeguarding the national strategic security of agricultural product supply and grain supply. To comprehensively deepen the reform of the rural land system, greater attention should be paid to protecting farmers' principal position as the starting point and ultimate goal. It is necessary to focus on the three major "three rural" new policy objectives of implementing collective ownership, stabilizing farmers' contract rights, and relaxing land management rights, redefine the functional positioning of local governments, confirm their powers and positions, and ensure their duties are fulfilled, so as to create a good "grounded" and "docked" environment for advancing the new round of rural land system reform. At the same time, along with the large-scale "going to the countryside" of urban industrial and commercial capital, opportunities and challenges will be brought to rural land transfer. It is necessary to prevent "non-agriculturalization" and "non-grainization," and mutated "land enclosure," raise the "threshold" of agricultural land use policy, strictly restrict changes in land use in land transfer and protect comprehensive agricultural production capacity, and effectively strengthen constraint mechanisms.

First, improve the policy system for rural land transfer. The Central Committee reviewed and approved the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Appropriately Scaled Agricultural Operations," which is the macro policy basis of the "three rural" new policies guiding the reform of the rural land system and agricultural operation system for a period to come. For the first time, it proposed that, on the premise of adhering to collective ownership of rural land, contract and management rights should be separated, forming a new pattern of "separation of three rights" among ownership rights, contract rights, and management rights. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of real rights for land contract and management rights. First, establish an open, competitive, fair, orderly, and standardized land transfer market. Improve and perfect the three-level rural land transfer service institutions and market system at the city, town, and village levels, carry out healthy and orderly rural land transfer, do a good job in the registration, release, and service of land transfer information, and promote the standardized and institutionalized development of rural land transfer. Second, improve the system for mediating and handling rural land conflicts and disputes. Establish and improve rural land dispute arbitration institutions, reasonably equip them with human, financial, and material resources, properly handle land transfer disputes, effectively safeguard the lawful rights and interests of farming households and contracted operators, and maintain rural social stability. Third, improve the information network system for rural land transfer transactions. Establish a land transfer information database and build a smooth transaction information platform for land transfer. Fourth, strengthen the management of land transfer archives. Do a good job in the collection, sorting, archiving, and management of land transfer materials, establish a long-term management mechanism, promote the standardized and orderly development of land transfer, improve the efficiency of agricultural land resource allocation and production and operation, and raise the efficiency of agricultural land use and the level of modern agriculture. Fifth, advance land transfer and appropriately scaled operation. In a mixed agricultural operation mechanism oriented toward "household operation" (professional large households, family farms, farmers' cooperatives) and "agricultural enterprises," achieve new breakthroughs in systems such as rights confirmation and certification, adjust a series of unsuitable agriculture-related policies, further improve the policy system, calibrate policy objectives, boost support for the development of diversified socialized service organizations, and improve the policy performance of advancing land transfer and scaled operation. Sixth, establish a mechanism to protect farmers' interests in land transfer. In fully participating in the process of scaled agricultural operation and sharing in the value-added benefits of the industry, more attention and policy support should be given to new attempts to transfer land and develop appropriately scaled operation through methods such as guaranteed minimum dividends, so as to safeguard farmers' land income rights in a more stable and lasting way.

Second, advance the process of scaled operation in an orderly manner. In order to steadily advance appropriately scaled operation of cultivated land and develop modern agriculture, it is necessary to guide agricultural product processing enterprises and leading processing enterprises to participate in the scaled operation of agricultural production, adopt forms such as contract production, building bases, and developing specialized cooperative organizations, make full use of enterprises' own advantages in capital, information, equipment, storage, and transportation, rely on enterprises to actively develop deep-processing products, extend the industrial chain, increase added value, improve product quality, and enhance market competitiveness.

Third, optimize the service support system for the new agriculture-related policies. Advancing land transfer and appropriately scaled operation can not only accelerate the optimized allocation of land factors, but also bring changes to the functional positioning and service methods of agriculture-related service systems such as agricultural technology, agricultural machinery, finance, and insurance. This in turn forces reform of agriculture's operation model, development mode, and service mode, comprehensively accelerating the construction and improvement of the service support system for new-type operating entities. With the focus on improving productive infrastructure conditions, perfecting the mortgage financing function of land management rights, and strengthening the ability to resist risks, targeted preferential policy support should be given to new agriculture-related operating entities such as "operating households" and "agricultural enterprises," including professional large households, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives that are more rational in scale and have greater practical driving force. In order to ensure that agricultural land security remains in the hands of new-type operating entities and to support contracted farming households who operate their own cultivated land, it is necessary to use fiscal agriculture-related policy engines to further increase policy support for new-type operating entities such as new operating entities for agriculture and grain production at scale, and effectively strengthen incentive mechanisms. The government should also encourage various financial and insurance institutions to help scaled-planting "operating households" solve the problem of insufficient funds through microcredit. It is necessary to integrate various agricultural support funds, allocate and use them uniformly, and focus them on solving problems urgently needed in the scaled production of scaled-planting "operating households," such as infrastructure construction. It is recommended to establish special fiscal funds to directly support "operating households" such as large households and specialized cooperative organizations, thereby raising the level of scaled agricultural operation. By better leveraging the comparative advantages and industrial engine role of "agricultural enterprises" in resource integration, technology absorption, market expansion, and quality control, support "agricultural enterprises" in developing appropriately in fields suited to them, so as to lead the development of modern agriculture and continuously improve the efficiency of agricultural land use and the level of modern agriculture.

Fourth, strengthen the construction and management-protection capacity of household facilities. Good production conditions are the foundation of scaled planting production and an important guarantee for reducing risks and increasing production and income. Include the cultivated land transferred by scaled operating households in the scope of agricultural development projects, concentrate investment, implement comprehensive improvement of roads, fields, water, and ditches, and effectively enhance the ability to withstand natural disasters. At the same time, village-level organizations should establish specialized organizational bodies to manage and protect already-built farmland water conservancy infrastructure, ensure that facilities function, extend their service life, and reduce reconstruction investment.

Fifth, strengthen the quality and effectiveness of agricultural science and technology services. The advancement of appropriately scaled land operation will inevitably cause rigid expansion and accelerating frequency of demand for socialized services. For this reason, among service recipients such as professional large households, family farms, and farmers' cooperatives engaged in "household operation," it is necessary to optimize the construction of the socialized agriculture-related service system, actively innovate service methods and approaches, improve the agricultural technology service system, highlight service priorities, extend service recipients to scaled-planting operating households, and truly provide effective technical services for scaled production. Through training, introduce new varieties, new technologies, agricultural standardization, agricultural product quality and safety, and marketing concepts to scaled-planting large households, and improve their quality. Implement chain operations of agricultural materials, enforce the strictest regulatory system, provide high-quality and reasonably priced agricultural materials to scaled-planting operating households, and promote their improvement of the level of scaled agricultural operation and comprehensive market competitiveness in broader rural areas.