Guiding the orderly transfer of rural land management rights and developing appropriately scaled agricultural operations

Effectively Publicize, Implement and Carry Out the Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Appropriately Scaled Agricultural Operations

Not long ago, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Appropriately Scaled Agricultural Operations. To publicize, implement and carry out this Opinions, we must further unify our thinking, raise our awareness, grasp the key points and clarify our tasks.

I. Fully understand the great significance of guiding the orderly transfer of rural land management rights and developing appropriately scaled agricultural operations

Why must we now put guiding the orderly transfer of land and developing appropriately scaled operations on the important agenda? Because this is an important task in deepening rural reform and is what development requires and the general trend demands. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to it, and the 18th National Congress of the Party and the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee both made arrangements for it. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that we must uphold the fundamental position of household operation in agriculture, encourage land management rights to be transferred on the open market to specialized large households, family farms, farmers' cooperatives and agricultural enterprises, and raise the level of intensive farming, scaled operation and socialized services. Premier Li Keqiang pointed out that we must focus on innovating agricultural operation methods, and, on the basis of upholding the household contract responsibility system, and on the premise of protecting farmers' lawful rights and interests and respecting farmers' wishes, go along with the trend, develop appropriately scaled operations in various forms, and promote the concentration of various modern production factors in agriculture. This time, the Opinions issued by the central authorities in the form of a document from the two General Offices was included in this year's plan for formulating central documents and intra-Party regulations, and was deliberated three times by the 62nd Executive Meeting of the State Council, the Fifth Meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform and the meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. It can be said to be high in specification and strict in procedure, reflecting the spirit of scientific and prudent decision-making. Why did the central authorities treat it with such solemnity? The reason lies in the fact that reform of the rural land system concerns the overall situation and the long term; it is a matter of great importance and must not be treated as an ordinary issue. This major and important matter must, from the very beginning, take the right path and be grasped accurately; we cannot eat half-cooked rice, cannot take crooked paths, and cannot make irreversible mistakes. As for the importance of this reform and the importance of the Opinions, no amount of emphasis is excessive. It can be said that guiding the orderly transfer of rural land management rights and developing appropriately scaled agricultural operations has reached the point where it must be done, and at the same time it is important work that must be done well. In this regard, we can deepen our understanding from the following aspects.

(1) This is an urgent need for developing modern agriculture. To build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, we must accelerate the pace of agricultural modernization and realize the “synchronization of the four modernizations.” In recent years, on the one hand, grain output has increased year after year, and the level of agricultural modernization has risen markedly; but on the other hand, agriculture faces many old constraints and new challenges, and agriculture remains the short leg and weak link among the “four modernizations.” To make up for this short leg and weak link, we must accelerate the pace of agricultural modernization, must adapt to the situation of large-scale transfer of rural labor and to the requirements of market economy development, guide the optimal allocation of land factors, develop appropriately scaled operations, and raise agricultural scale efficiency and market competitiveness. In the process of industrialization and urbanization, the transfer of rural labor for employment, the acceleration of rural land transfer and the expansion of agricultural operation scale are a universal phenomenon and general law of world agricultural development. Now, China has also reached such a stage. As of the end of June 2014, the area of contracted cultivated land transferred nationwide was 380 million mu, accounting for 28.8% of the total contracted cultivated land area; various types of specialized large households in rural areas reached 3.17 million, family farms 870,000, farmers' cooperatives 1.24 million, and leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization 120,000. Guiding the orderly transfer of rural land management rights and developing appropriately scaled agricultural operations is an inherent requirement and a practical issue of our time. Therefore, we must, by guiding the orderly transfer of land and developing appropriately scaled operations, build the two institutional foundations of a rural land system and an agricultural operation system with Chinese characteristics, and create the necessary conditions for building specialized, standardized, scaled and intensive modern agriculture.

(2) This is an urgent need for upholding and improving the basic rural operation system. The two-tier operation system based on household contracted operation and combining unified and separate operation is the basic rural operation system and the cornerstone of the Party's rural policy. To uphold the basic rural operation system is to uphold farmers' collective ownership of rural land, uphold the fundamental position of household operation, and uphold stable land contracting relations. Practice has proved that these three requirements conform to national conditions and agricultural conditions, and they must be upheld unswervingly over the long term. At the same time, in light of new circumstances such as changes in the rural social structure and increases in the level of agricultural productivity, adjustments, improvements, development and innovation should be made on the premise of stabilizing the basic operation system. In 1997, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Notice on Further Stabilizing and Improving Rural Land Contracting Relations (Zhong Ban Fa [1997] No. 16), which, precisely on the premise of upholding the basic rural operation system, answered the question of what to do after the expiration of the first round of land contracting, and in theory and practice resolved the issues of collective land ownership, household contracting and no change for 30 years, laying an important foundation for the sustained relatively rapid development and stability of agriculture and rural areas over the following nearly 20 years. After 17 years, the central authorities again issued the Opinions, making relatively comprehensive policy arrangements on issues related to rural land contracting under the new situation, in effect improving and developing the basic rural operation system, and having important guiding significance for rural work in the period ahead. According to the spirit of the Opinions, in guiding the orderly transfer of rural land management rights, what is transferred is the management right of contracted farm households. This is conducive to further liberating and developing agricultural productivity and creates conditions for developing appropriately scaled agricultural operations, while it has not changed the nature of collective ownership of rural land, has not changed land contracting relations, has not shaken the fundamental position of household operation, and has not shaken the cornerstone of the Party's rural policy. It enables the basic rural operation system, on the basis of stability, to further improve while keeping pace with the times, better adapting to the situation and conforming to public opinion.

⟦NL> (3) This is an urgent need for safeguarding farmers' lawful rights and interests and maintaining rural harmony and stability. Land is the lifeblood of farmers and where their fundamental interests lie. Farmers mainly care about the “three plots of land,” namely contracted land, homestead land and collective operational construction land. Among these, contracted land is the most important means of production and the most basic livelihood guarantee for farmers, involves the largest area, and has the most complex interest relationships. In recent years, disputes over land expropriation and occupation and over land transfer have increased, and the problem of protecting farmers' land rights and interests has become prominent. At present, China has more than 200 million farm households, and ordinary farm households operating their own contracted cultivated land still make up the majority. Guiding the orderly transfer of contracted land management rights concerns the lawful land rights and interests of hundreds of millions of farm households in the process of urbanization and concerns rural harmony and stability. Under such circumstances, only by further reaffirming the basic principles, clarifying policy boundaries, and truly enabling farmers to benefit from land transfer and scaled operations without harm to their land rights and interests can their enthusiasm for participation be mobilized, can land management rights transfer proceed in an “orderly” manner, and can rural harmony and stability be safeguarded. For this reason, the Opinions particularly stress that we must uphold the principles of lawfulness, voluntariness and compensation, respect farmers' principal position in transfer, resolutely prevent infringement of farmers' land rights and interests, and prohibit coercion and commandism in land transfer.

(4) This is an urgent need for properly resolving prominent problems in land transfer and scaled operations. Judging from practice in recent years, rural land transfer in China has clearly accelerated and scaled operations have developed rapidly, playing an important role in modern agricultural development and increasing farmers' incomes. Land transfer has on the whole been healthy. However, there also exist two prominent problems: one is that unclear contracting relations and unclear ownership of contracted land lead to sluggish land transfer, and the other is that farmers' wishes are violated by forced promotion, or even by assigning tasks and targets to carry out land transfer, with serious tendencies toward “non-grain” and “non-agricultural” use. Looking across the development history of other countries in the world, different approaches bring two completely different outcomes. One is to guide the orderly transfer of land and develop appropriately scaled operations with farm households as the main body, which not only promotes industrialization and urbanization but also solves the problems of farmers' employment and income increase, as in some developed countries in Europe and America; the other is to concentrate land in the hands of a few, with the scale of agricultural production expanded or even corporatized, but with large numbers of landless and unemployed farmers flooding into cities, forming difficult-to-solve urban diseases such as “slums” and falling into the “middle-income trap,” as in some Latin American countries. This time the central authorities promptly issued the Opinions precisely at this important moment and critical juncture to point out the way and give everyone a reminder, so as to prevent taking the wrong turn and taking crooked paths.

In short, the central authorities' formulation and issuance of these Opinions, like Zhong Ban Fa No. 16 of 1997, is both an urgent need of current practice and an objective requirement of long-term development. This is a guide for reform and innovation of the rural land system and agricultural operation system in the next 10-20 years. We must study it earnestly and comprehend it deeply, seeing both the direction clearly and identifying the path correctly; focusing both on solving agricultural problems and on solving farmers' problems; both seizing the trend and actively taking action, and proceeding step by step with historical patience; and seeing both the general laws of developing modern agriculture in countries around the world and China's special national and agricultural conditions of many people and little land. We must truly unify our thinking and action with the central authorities' decisions and arrangements, and with the spirit of the Opinions, accurately grasp the policy requirements, and do our work actively and steadily.

II. Deeply comprehend the spirit of the central authorities and accurately grasp the requirements of the Opinions

The Opinions of the two General Offices consist of 5 parts and 19 articles. They are rich in content and far-reaching in intent, and are highly policy-oriented and guiding. We must carefully study the original text to ensure that we comprehend the spirit fully and grasp practice accurately. In implementing and carrying out the Opinions well, the core is that the path must be clear and the pace must be steady. By the path being clear, we mean realizing the “separation of the three rights,” upholding collective ownership of rural land, stabilizing farm households' contracting rights, and invigorating land management rights; by the pace being steady, we mean achieving the “three adaptations,” namely that appropriately scaled agricultural operations must adapt to the process of urbanization and the scale of rural labor transfer, to the progress of agricultural science and technology and the degree of improvement in production methods, and to the raising of the level of agricultural socialized services. The focus is on grasping eight aspects:

(1) Be guided by the major theoretical innovation of the “separation of the three rights”. As everyone knows, rural land in China is owned collectively, as is made clear in the Constitution, but its forms of realization differ in different periods. During the people's commune period, collective ownership and collective operation were practiced, with poor results. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, we implemented household contracted operation, in effect separating collective ownership of land from farm households' contracted management rights, or a “separation of two rights,” which both adapted to the characteristics of agricultural production and fully mobilized farmers' enthusiasm, and practice has proved the results to be good. At present, against the background of rapid industrialization and urbanization, large numbers of laborers are leaving rural areas, farmers have become differentiated, and there are more and more cases in which contracted farm households do not operate their own contracted land. In most areas, the conditions for separating contracting rights from management rights are basically mature. In this regard, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that in adopting the household contract responsibility system, separating land ownership from contracted management rights, with ownership belonging to the collective and contracted management rights belonging to farm households, was a major innovation in China's rural reform; now, going along with farmers' wishes to retain land contracting rights and transfer land management rights, dividing farmers' land contracted management rights into contracting rights and management rights, and realizing the separated and parallel operation of contracting rights and management rights, is another major innovation in China's rural reform. The “separation of the three rights” is an important basis for guiding the orderly transfer of land. It can both safeguard collective land rights and interests and protect farm households' contracting rights and interests, and can invigorate land management rights and solve the problem of optimizing the allocation of land factors; it can both adapt to the reality of the rapid development of secondary and tertiary industries, allowing rural laborers to transfer for employment with peace of mind and transfer land with peace of mind, and promote the formation of scaled land operations and accelerate agricultural and rural development. In short, realizing the “separation of the three rights” is a major theoretical innovation and also a basic guideline for deepening reform of the rural land system.

⟦NL> (2) Grasp the foundation of stabilizing contracting relations. Only when land contracting relations are stable and farmers' land contracted management rights are fully safeguarded can they transfer land with confidence over the long term, and only then can the transferee obtain stable operational expectations. Maintaining the existing rural land contracting relations stable and unchanged for a long time is the foundation for safeguarding farmers' land contracted management rights. In the past, farm households' contracted land was mainly managed according to contracts, and there existed problems such as inaccurate area, unclear boundaries, unclear spatial location and unsound registration books. This left many farmers uneasy, always worrying that once land was transferred their own rights and interests could not be safeguarded. To stabilize rural land contracting relations and safeguard farmers' land contracted management rights, the key is to do a good job in confirming, registering and certifying contracted land, improve the registration system for land contracted management rights, issue ownership certificates, strengthen protection of real rights, and lay a solid foundation of property rights for the transfer of land management rights. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that this work must be grasped firmly and effectively, truly giving farmers a “reassurance pill.” Premier Li Keqiang clearly required in the Government Work Report that the work of confirming, registering and certifying rural land contracted management rights be grasped firmly. To guide all localities in further doing a good job in confirming, registering and certifying contracted land, the Opinions make clear that we must steadily advance according to the principles of maintaining stability, law-based standardization, democratic consultation, adapting measures to local conditions, and division of responsibilities by level; in principle, rights should be confirmed to households and to plots, and, on the premise of respecting farmers' wishes, rights may also be confirmed by shares rather than by plots; we must strengthen the responsibilities of county and township levels, establish a working mechanism of unified leadership by Party committees and governments, close cooperation among departments, and broad participation by the masses; and strengthen work guarantees, with funding included in local fiscal budgets and central fiscal subsidies provided. These requirements must be implemented well.

(3) Ensure that the transfer of land management rights proceeds in an orderly manner. Land transfer is a process of optimizing the allocation of resources and is the result of economic laws. As a factor of production, land needs to be transferred; some farmers going out to work need transfer; and raising the efficiency of agriculture, especially grain production, also requires transferring land. In formulating this document, the central authorities stressed on the one hand encouraging land transfer, and on the other hand stressing that land transfer must be orderly. What is orderliness? It means following the laws of economic development and not surpassing the stage; respecting farmers' wishes and not using coercion or commandism; protecting operators' rights and interests and not arbitrarily breaking contracts; and abiding by legal norms and not leaving hidden dangers or loopholes. When rural laborers find relatively stable jobs in cities and towns and have stable wage income, returning home to farm during busy seasons becomes a burden, and they will naturally want to transfer their contracted land. Once transfer is signed by contract and procedures are completed, there are constraints and it is easier to standardize. We can only let nature take its course and guide according to the situation; we cannot forcibly transfer land before people have even gone out, for that would undermine the foundation for the healthy development of land transfer. As for the standardization of land transfer, the key point is how cadres at all levels grasp and guide it. General Secretary Xi Jinping particularly stressed the “three must-nots,” namely that in land transfer we must not launch a great leap forward, must not use coercion or commandism, and must not engage in blind administrative direction, and that problems encountered must be promptly pointed out and corrected. In my view, only by achieving these “three must-nots” can orderliness be achieved. According to statistics, in recent years the proportion of contracted cultivated land transferred nationwide has increased by a widening margin year by year, rising by 4.8 percentage points last year and by another 2.8 percentage points in the first half of this year. This shows that the speed of transfer is not a problem, and there is no need to artificially accelerate it. For this reason, the Opinions stress that land transfer must uphold the principles of lawfulness, voluntariness and compensation and the principle of market allocation of resources; the government is mainly to do a good job in management and services, formulate transfer market rules, build land management rights transfer markets in various forms, provide services to both parties in the transfer, guide contracted farm households and transferees to sign written transfer contracts, improve dispute mediation mechanisms, and ensure that land transfer proceeds in a standardized and orderly manner; assigning targets and fixing tasks are strictly prohibited, so as to prevent haste from defeating the purpose.