Accelerated Land Transfer Boosts Intensive Agricultural Operations

Taoyuan County is located in the northwest of Hunan Province, with a total area of 4,442 square kilometers and 1.338 million mu of cultivated land, making it a typical major agricultural county. In recent years, following the concept of modern agricultural development to expand scale, improve quality, and strengthen brands, we have made rural land transfer the central task of our work on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. In 2014, the area of contracted cultivated land transferred in the county reached 250,000 mu, accounting for 22% of the contracted cultivated land area, an increase of 7.5 percentage points over the previous year, of which 93,700 mu was newly transferred; 79,000 farming households participated in land transfer, accounting for 33% of contracted households, with 1,260 large land transfer households, achieving a scale operation area of 158,600 mu. The significant increase in operation scale, accelerated intensive agricultural development, and improved quality of agricultural economic development were mainly due to the "four transfers":

1. Build a service system to support land transfer. With quality services, smooth channels, and a good environment, ensure lawful and orderly land transfer.

First, improve service institutions. Establish a rural land transfer leading group headed by the county magistrate, and following the model of "county builds center, township builds office, village builds station," guide the establishment of a three-tier rural land transfer management service platform at county, township, and village levels, each fulfilling its own responsibilities while coordinating and cooperating, implementing unified and centralized processing. Focus on rural land transfer business guidance, policy publicity, policy consultation, price evaluation, information management, and other work, conduct qualification review and certification of large industry households and family farms, and achieve the "four haves," namely having a management system, office space, full-time personnel, and special funds.

Second, introduce incentive policies. Allocate special funds of 1.5 million yuan, organized by the office of the rural land transfer leading group for centralized acceptance inspection, and provide corresponding financial support to townships based on the area of written land transfer contracts signed, mobilizing township enthusiasm and giving play to the guiding and coordinating functions. At the same time, for grain-growing large households transferring more than 50 mu of cultivated land, award subsidies of 1,000 yuan, 3,000 yuan, 5,000 yuan, and 8,000 yuan respectively according to transfer scale; for professional cooperative organizations with 1,000 member households, 10,000 mu of transferred cultivated land, or 1,000 mu of self-leased cultivated land, award 10,000 yuan, encouraging the development of scale operations and forming a strong driving force for land transfer.

Third, optimize the transfer environment. According to the general requirements of "expanding transfer scale, improving the service system, strengthening standardized management, and improving transfer efficiency," formulate and issue the "Taoyuan County Rural Land Contracted Management Right Transfer Work Plan," sign responsibility statements with each township one by one, incorporate into annual performance assessment, and provide a positive government affairs environment. In conjunction with the urban-rural integration development strategy, use industry-city integration as a lever to promote industrial development and solve the employment problem of farmers entering cities; migrant workers can choose independently according to regulations between urban enterprise employee basic pension insurance or the new urban-rural residents' social pension insurance, and urban employee basic medical insurance or urban residents' basic medical insurance, accelerating the transfer and concentration of rural population to towns and cities, prompting farmers to voluntarily transfer land.

2. Grasp work measures accurately to guide land transfer. Highlight the principles of "lawful, voluntary, and compensated," guide extensively and deeply, and transform "I am asked to transfer" into "I want to transfer."

First, change mass attitudes. Increase social security efforts, improve the rural social security system including pension, medical care, and minimum living allowances, effectively solve the living problems of farmers after land transfer, and weaken the "attachment to land" sentiment. At present, the actual reimbursement rate for hospitalization under the new rural cooperative medical system in the county is 65%, of which the actual level of hospitalization reimbursement within the policy scope of the pooled area reaches 75%, effectively safeguarding the rural medical level. At the same time, organize experts to "sit for consultations" on a long-term basis, patiently explain the relationship between land contract rights and land transfer, and relieve farmers' concerns that transferring land means losing it.

Second, strengthen business training. Throughout the year, organize two batches of rural land transfer series training, divided into 7 sessions with more than 1,800 person-times, providing professional coaching to township heads, land transfer service office staff, land transfer brokers and large growers, family farm owners, and cooperative legal representatives, changing the mistaken understanding that land transfer is only the business of farmers and operators, deeply understanding the policies and laws of land contracting and land transfer, and systematically learning land transfer work procedures and contract signing procedures.

Third, innovate transfer methods. Fully implement entrusted transfer, adhere to the main direction of transfer to large growers, with farmers voluntarily entrusting land to village organizations for unified transfer to large industry households for "substitute cultivation," eliminating abandonment caused by difficulties in land leveling; vigorously promote guided transfer, gradually increasing the proportion of transfer to new business entities such as farmers' professional cooperatives, family farms, and leading enterprises; reasonably use seasonal transfer, giving full play to the value of land transfer according to industrial order needs. Among these, newly transferred land by lease reached 124,400 mu, accounting for 63.41% of the transferred area; leased transferred land in 4 townships including Fengshu Township, Sanyanggang Town, Wuxihe Township, and Shuangxikou Township reached over 80%.

3. Rely on demonstration effects to drive land transfer. Adhere to using typical cases to invigorate the overall situation, using the market to promote flow, creating a transfer atmosphere, adjusting the industrial structure, and promoting farmers' income growth.

First, give play to the benchmark role. Highlight the principal position of farmers' professional cooperatives, attract skilled growers and breeders, and expand scale effects. At present, the county has registered 370 farmers' professional cooperatives, including 5 national-level demonstration cooperatives, 4 provincial-level demonstration cooperatives, and 30 municipal-level demonstration cooperatives. In particular, Hunan Yinmutang Agricultural Planting Professional Cooperative implements the modern industrial model of "cooperative + base + farmers," utilizes geographical advantages, absorbs surrounding agricultural land, extensively builds cotton and rice bases, and has driven a large number of professional cooperatives to follow suit, with new standardized cooperative bases reaching more than 10% of the county's agricultural production scale.

Second, highlight benefit-driven approaches. Based on the reality that scale operation transfer returns are far higher than transfer returns between farmers, further strengthen benefit guidance. Actively promote the successful experience of Hunan New Cooperation Selenium-Enriched Rice Professional Cooperative's "six unifications," integrate shareholding land and contracted land, implement unified production plans, unified supply of agricultural materials, unified quality standards, unified purchase prices, unified processing and sales, unified technical services, and advance production costs first, enabling farmers to plant "no-cost fields" and "worry-free fields," increasing income by more than 200 yuan per mu, stimulating farmers' willingness to join cooperatives, and confidently transferring land to cooperatives.

Third, expand market regulation. Following the approach of "government guidance, large household investment, cooperative operation, and industrialized development," rely on the land transfer platform, establish a land transfer information database, and do a good job in collecting, registering, and publishing rural land supply and demand. According to market supply and demand relationships, reasonably determine transfer price standards, combine with modern agricultural demonstration zones and township thousand-mu, village hundred-mu high-yield creation demonstration plots, implement contiguous transfer, introduce fair bidding and public tendering methods, activate the land market, and cultivate a virtuous cycle mechanism for land transfer.

4. Improve safeguard mechanisms to standardize land transfer. With rigorous registration, strict procedures, and tight regulation, ensure normal land transfer.

First, advance the land rights confirmation mechanism. According to the principles of "lawful and compliant, maintaining stability, strictly standardizing, and responsibility at each level," complete the pilot work of rural land contracted management right registration in Baiyanghe Village of Fengshu Township, Gaoyan Village of Zhengjiayi Township, and Zao'erya Village of Longtan Town, summarize the "five-step work method" for rights confirmation registration, namely baseline mapping, boundary survey, public announcement and confirmation, contract signing, and certificate issuance, thoroughly solve problems such as inaccurate area, unclear boundaries, unclear spatial location, incomplete registration books, and untimely change or cancellation registration, clarify property rights, and consolidate the foundation for land transfer. At the same time, strive to improve the land contracting information management system, effectively achieve "one page per household, one volume per group, one file per village, one cabinet per township," and realize county-township networked computerized management.

Second, standardize land transfer procedures. Organize the Economic Management Bureau, Agriculture Bureau, and Industry and Commerce Bureau for consultation and coordination, formulate standardized and convenient template models, and establish complete rural land transfer operational procedures; regularly go to villages and households every week for on-site guidance on written transfer contract signing, uniformly produce land transfer certificates and standardized contract texts, and print more than 200,000 copies this year to distribute free to farmers, effectively preventing land transfer disputes; comprehensively ascertain the baseline of rural land transfer, establish a monthly dynamic reporting mechanism, improve administrative efficiency, and provide a fast track.

Third, improve the mediation and arbitration system. Strengthen land transfer risk control and effectively carry out mediation and arbitration services for rural land transfer disputes. Establish a rural land contracting dispute arbitration committee office at the county level, set up land dispute mediation committees in townships, and select one mediator with business knowledge and experience in each village (community), forming a work system of three-level overall linkage at county, township, and village levels, coordination at every level, and pressure on everyone. In 2014, the county mediated 299 land contracting and operation disputes, especially in the Lucizhou land dispute in Zoushi Town, actively resolving the focal contradictions between farmers and contractors, fairly and reasonably negotiating transfer prices, and re-signing land transfer contracts.