The pace of rural land transfer is accelerating: what does it mean for farmers?

Wei Dedong (right), founder of the Fumin Family Farm in Shandong, uses the newly installed agricultural irrigation line for a trial watering (photographed on March 10, 2013). By the end of June 2014, the area of contracted household farmland transferred nationwide reached 380 million mu, accounting for 28.8% of the total contracted household farmland area, up 20 percentage points from the end of 2008. Behind the acceleration of rural land transfer is the reality that Chinese agriculture is bidding farewell to thousands of years of smallholder farming and stepping into large-scale, modernized operation; China's agriculture has entered a new normal of large-scale operation. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fan Changguo

Workers at a shiitake mushroom production base in Liuzhangzi Township, Chengde County, Chengde City, sorting fungus sticks (photographed on June 26, 2014). In recent years, Chengde City, Hebei Province, has stepped up rural land transfer and kept innovating forms to provide driving support for agricultural development, achieving good economic benefits. At present, the cumulative transferred land area in Chengde City has reached more than 750,000 mu. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiao

At the “Chen Family Farm” in Maziping Tun, Xinhe Village, Daliang Town, Rong'an County, Guangxi, farmers box the harvested grapes (photographed on July 11, 2014). The “Chen Family Farm” is the first family farm registered and established in Rong'an County, Guangxi. Through land transfer, the farm grows high-quality double-season grapes on 200 mu of land, which can be harvested in summer and winter, with a yield of about 3,000 kg per mu. The “Chen Family Farm” plans to use an intensive management model to drive nearby people to grow double-season grapes and increase their income. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Bin

Workers at a modern agricultural industrial park in Wangdu County, Hebei Province, picking tomatoes in a greenhouse (photographed on December 17, 2014). In recent years, Wangdu County, Hebei Province, has actively explored rural land transfer policies and kept innovating land transfer forms, following the principle of “farmers' voluntary participation and reasonable transfer” to concentrate farmland into large-scale specialty agriculture, high-efficiency agriculture and pollution-free agriculture, focusing on fostering county-level specialty economies and striving to promote standardized rural land transfer to drive modern agricultural development. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Xudong