Who will farm the land tomorrow? The household contract management system needs further improvement
The "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations" proposes accelerating the cultivation of new types of agricultural operating entities. Cultivating new types of agricultural operating entities is of great significance for accelerating the transformation of agricultural production methods and solving the problem of “who will farm the land” in the future. In this regard, the Economic Daily reporter recently interviewed Zhang Xiaoshan, a member of the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The household contract management system needs further stabilization and improvement
The household contract management system establishes farming households as the main body of agricultural operations, granting farmers long-term and guaranteed land use rights and operational autonomy, which greatly mobilized the production enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of farmers. Zhang Xiaoshan believes that the household has always been the foundation and main body of agricultural production, which has been proven by the practice of agricultural development both in China and abroad. From practical experience, household operations combined with socialized services can adapt to different levels of agricultural productivity, adapting to both traditional agriculture and modern agriculture, with broad adaptability and vigorous vitality.
Under the situation of synchronized development of industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization, household contract management also faces new challenges. According to calculations based on the data of the Second National Agricultural Census, each agricultural production and operation household can only operate an average of 9.1 mu of cultivated land, and each agricultural worker can only operate 5.2 mu of cultivated land. After deducting material costs, calculating the net income per mu of cultivated land per year at 500 yuan, the annual net income of an agricultural worker is only 2,500 yuan. “Small-scale operations cannot achieve the goals of increasing agricultural efficiency and farmers' income, nor can they make farming a decent and respected occupation. Household operations do not equal small-scale operations.” Zhang Xiaoshan said that for China's agricultural production to reach a new level, it is necessary to appropriately expand the scale of operations and vigorously cultivate new types of agricultural operating entities on the basis of stabilizing household contract management.
Cultivating new types of agricultural operating entities on the basis of household operations
At present, China's new types of agricultural operating entities present a diversified and mixed development pattern. Specialized large households, family farms, farmers' professional cooperatives and leading agricultural enterprises are all organic components of new types of agricultural operating entities. Various types of new agricultural operating entities have basically developed from the foundation of household operations and are inextricably linked to farming households.
“Nearly 270 million rural laborers in China have transferred to non-agricultural sectors, and the main means of production they rely on for survival is no longer land. Some skilled farmers have transferred the contracted land management rights of those rural residents who have left the land and agriculture, expanded the scale of operations, and created an upgraded version of household operations.” Zhang Xiaoshan said that currently, family farms that use family members as the main labor force, rely on agriculture as the main source of income, and engage in specialized and intensive agricultural production are emerging. There are already 870,000 family farms nationwide, with an average scale of 200 mu.
Driven by land transfer, a number of farmers' land shareholding cooperatives have been established. Farmers' land shareholding cooperatives convert farmers' contracted land into quantified shares. Farmers join together to establish cooperatives with their contracted land as shares, developing large-scale agricultural operations through self-operation or entrusted operation, and distributing the proceeds according to shares. Zhang Xiaoshan believes that this form of organization makes the cooperative itself an agricultural enterprise of a certain scale engaged in agricultural production, making farmers the masters of the enterprise. It not only achieves large-scale agricultural operations but also avoids the possible negative effects of large-scale leasing of farmers' contracted land by industrial and commercial capital.
In recent years, on the basis of rural household contract management, producers and operators of similar agricultural products, or providers and users of similar agricultural production and operation services, have voluntarily joined together to establish various types of farmers' professional cooperatives. Zhang Xiaoshan believes that farmers' cooperatives are becoming modern agricultural operating organizations that lead farmers to participate in domestic and international market competition, and the basic entity that drives farmers into the market. Farmers' professional cooperatives, together with rural community collective economic organizations, various agricultural socialized service organizations and leading agricultural enterprises, constitute a diversified and multi-level operating service system for agricultural production.
Industrial and commercial capital cannot replace farmers in developing modern agriculture
Zhang Xiaoshan said that in the process of China's transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, on the basis of household contract management by farmers, industrial and commercial capital entering the pre-production, mid-production, and post-production circulation and processing areas of agriculture has always been encouraged and advocated.
Industrial and commercial capital entering agriculture must first properly handle the interest relationship with the vast number of farming households. Zhang Xiaoshan believes that developing modern agriculture cannot ignore the basic agricultural reality that ordinary farming households operating their own contracted cultivated land still account for the majority. Industrial and commercial capital should drive farmers to develop modern agriculture, not replace farmers in developing modern agriculture. It should form a driving effect on farmers, not a crowding-out effect. Industrial and commercial capital mainly enters production links that households and farmers' cooperatives cannot do or cannot do well, and weak links in industrial development.
Zhang Xiaoshan proposed that in the process of encouraging industrial and commercial capital to enter the agricultural sector, it is necessary to suppress the negative effects brought by industrial and commercial capital and prevent the possible tendency toward de-agriculturalization and de-grainization. First, a strict access system should be established. All localities should have clear controls on industrial and commercial enterprises leasing farmers' contracted cultivated land for long periods and large areas, implement classified registration by area, and establish and improve qualification review and project review systems. Second, a dynamic supervision system should be established. Relevant departments should regularly carry out supervision and inspection of the agricultural operating capacity, land use and risk prevention capacity of land-leasing enterprises, and verify land use, contract performance and other circumstances. Supervision after the event should be strengthened, and a risk guarantee fund system should be established to prevent damage to farmers' rights and interests.