Information technology for land transfer, building a trustworthy platform

Now when people talk about “land transfer”, one word describes it: “hot”! Authoritative data show that, as of the end of June 2014, nearly 1/3 of the country's contracted farmland operated by households had been transferred. According to information disclosed by a professional land transfer website, the area of land posted and the transaction volume in 2014, compared with 2012, had average annual growth rates of 178.4% and 155.0% respectively. But behind the “thriving” scene, problems still exist, such as inaccurate areas of farmers' contracted land, unclear spatial locations, and incomplete registration books, which leave many farmers uneasy, worrying that after their land is transferred, their rights and interests cannot be protected. How can farmers who have transferred their land be assured about the transaction? Who will give farmers a “reassurance pill”?

The confirmation and registration of rights to farmers' contracted land and orderly transfer are an institutional arrangement for protecting farmers' interests and improving agricultural efficiency. But before rights confirmation and transfer, a large amount of service work -- such as how to accurately measure land, how to locate complex spatial positions, and how to determine the attributes of cultivated land, forest land, ponds, rivers and lakes -- must be surveyed, collected, summarized and analyzed. Who will do this massive amount of information work? In today's highly developed information age, under government supervision, bringing in a third party and having professional companies, professional personnel and professional equipment complete this more detailed and more comprehensive service will yield twice the result with half the effort. Not long ago, the government of Caojing Town, Jinshan District, Shanghai, paid the bill with public funds and hired a company with safety service qualifications as a third-party safety management provider, in order to advance the implementation of the urban operation safety system and production safety guarantee measures. Mianyang City, Sichuan, purchased third-party environmental protection services to complete public service matters for social development and people's daily life that were originally undertaken by the government. Similar examples have become common in recent years. Only when farmers have a “detailed account” can they set their minds at ease. What the government needs to do is choose the “third party” well and manage the “service provider” well.

⟦NL> On the other hand, land transfer must be orderly. How can “orderliness” be guaranteed? An open, standardized and transparent professional platform provides a guarantee for orderly transfer. At a time when “big data” is just rising, the internet platform can gather all kinds of land transfer information published in real time, and can even extend its reach globally, providing any information needed by both parties to the transaction and expanding channels for farmers to obtain information. It not only subdivides the types of transferred land into many categories, but also provides various transfer methods, increasing the success rate of land transfer. Because of the objectivity of information on professional internet platforms, they can also take on the functions of professional evaluation and assessment reference, and greatly reduce participants' transaction costs, increase the intrinsic benefits of land transfer to a greater extent, and ensure that farmers receive the returns they deserve from participating in transfers. At a deeper level, this achieves the optimized allocation of land resources through market-based means across a larger scope and broader field, as well as the optimized combination of land with other production factors.

In 2015, the highlight of rural land reform is “land transfer”. For farmers, land is both their guarantee and their fallback; the government should step back from the role of both coach and referee, let professional companies do professional work, and let farmers truly enjoy the dividends released by land reform and the fruits of modern agriculture.