How much agricultural facility land is actually reasonable to use?
With the continuous development of modern agriculture and large-scale land management, the current facility agricultural land policy can no longer adapt to the current situation. Recently, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture issued the "Notice on Improving the Management of Facility Agricultural Land" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), further improving and standardizing land management, and clarifying the relevant requirements and support policies for facility agricultural land management.
In recent years, with the emergence of new types of business entities and the development of large-scale grain production, some new situations and new problems have appeared in rural land management. For example, the supporting facilities necessary for large-scale grain production, such as grain drying yards, storage yards, drying towers, and warehouses for agricultural machinery and materials, have not been included in the scope of “facility agricultural land”, becoming a “blank spot” in current management. In some areas, especially the plains areas, the basic farmland protection rate is high, and it is very difficult for supporting facilities engaged in large-scale grain production to avoid basic farmland. So how should facility agricultural land be defined? What are the standards for facility agricultural land? Regarding this, the reporter interviewed Liu Mingsong, deputy director of the Cultivated Land Protection Department of the Ministry of Land and Resources.
Production facilities, auxiliary facilities, and supporting facilities belong to the scope of facility agricultural land
Land used for various manors, wineries, and farmhouses does not belong to facility agricultural land
Liu Mingsong said that according to the characteristics of modern agricultural production, and proceeding from the need to support the development of facility agriculture and large-scale grain production and to standardize land management, facility agricultural land is specifically divided into production facility land, auxiliary facility land, and supporting facility land.
Production facility land refers to facility land within a facility agriculture project area that is directly used for agricultural product production. It includes: land for glass or PC board multi-span greenhouses with steel frame structures in factory-based crop cultivation; production facilities such as livestock and poultry houses (including internal roads within the site) and livestock and poultry organic matter treatment facilities in large-scale breeding, as well as land for green isolation belts; production facility land for aquaculture such as aquaculture ponds, factory-based breeding ponds, and inlet and drainage channels; land for breeding and seedling-raising sites, simple production watchhouses (single-story, less than 15 square meters), and so on.
Auxiliary facility land refers to facility land directly used for auxiliary production in facility agriculture projects. It includes: land for technical facilities such as inspection, quarantine and monitoring, and animal and plant epidemic and pest prevention and control that must be supported in facility agricultural production, as well as necessary management buildings; land for environmental protection facilities such as the collection, storage, and treatment of wastes such as livestock and poultry manure and sewage that must be supported in facility agricultural production, and land for biomass (organic) fertilizer production facilities; land for equipment, raw materials, and temporary storage of agricultural products and sorting and packaging sites that are necessary in facility agricultural production, and land such as internal roads that comply with the provisions for “rural roads”.
Supporting facility land refers to facility land necessary for large-scale grain production by large specialized agricultural households, family farms, farmers' cooperatives, agricultural enterprises, and so on. It includes: land for drying yards, grain drying facilities, temporary storage sites for grain and agricultural materials, and temporary storage sites for large agricultural machinery and tools.
“However, land for commercial grain storage, processing, and storage and repair sites for agricultural machinery and materials; leisure, sightseeing, and vacation sites supported by agriculture, various manors, wineries, and farmhouses; and land involving the construction of permanent dining, accommodation, conference, large parking lot, factory-based agricultural product processing, exhibition and sales facilities, and so on in various agricultural parks must still be managed as construction land in accordance with laws and regulations.” Liu Mingsong emphasized.
Supporting facilities for large-scale grain production may occupy basic farmland
In the south, for large-scale grain production with a planting area of 500 mu, and in the north within 1000 mu, the supporting facility land shall be controlled within 3 mu
“According to the characteristics of modern agricultural production, the Notice, for the first time, includes the land for supporting facilities needed for large-scale grain production within the scope of facility agricultural land, managing it as agricultural land, with no need to go through the approval procedures for conversion of agricultural land.” Liu Mingsong stated.
“Some places, in the name of developing facility agriculture and building ‘necessary management and living quarters’, illegally occupy land, and in some places the phenomenon of ‘greenhouse houses’ has appeared. So how can this phenomenon be eliminated?”
Liu Mingsong said: “In order to prevent various places from arbitrarily or in disguised form converting facility agricultural land to non-agricultural use under the name of living quarters, the Notice removes land for living quarters from the scope of auxiliary facility land and puts forward specific requirements for the scale of auxiliary facility and supporting facility land. In particular, the scale of supporting facility land should be reasonably determined according to the needs of large-scale grain production. In the south, for large-scale grain production with a planting area of 500 mu, and in the north within 1000 mu, the supporting facility land shall be controlled within 3 mu; where the above planting area scale is exceeded, the supporting facility land may be appropriately expanded, but must not exceed 10 mu at most.”
The Notice stipulates that for supporting facility construction involved in large-scale grain production in plains areas, where it is truly difficult to arrange the site on other land categories and impossible to avoid basic farmland, and after argumentation organized by the county-level land and resources competent department together with the agriculture department confirms that occupation is truly necessary, basic farmland may be occupied. Where basic farmland is occupied, it must be supplemented and designated according to the principles of equal quantity, comparable quality, and relevant requirements. Liu Mingsong explained: “This policy aims to support large-scale grain production and ensure food security. Therefore, the Notice stipulates that other production facilities and auxiliary facility construction still must not occupy basic farmland.”
Canceling the review of facility agricultural land and changing it to a filing system
The construction plan and land use conditions shall be announced to the public through township and village group government affairs disclosure and other forms, and the announcement period shall be no less than 10 days
“In order to standardize land use, the Notice stipulates filing for the land use agreement. After the land use agreement is signed, the township government shall, as required, promptly report the land use agreement and facility construction plan to the county-level land and resources competent department and the agriculture department for filing. Where the relevant provisions on facility agricultural land are not met, construction must not begin.” Liu Mingsong said.
“The Notice cancels the county-level review system for facility agricultural land and changes it to a filing system. The rural collective economic organization and the land user agree on land use conditions, and the management role of the township government is brought into play to standardize land use behavior.” Liu Mingsong said that before facility agricultural land is used, the operator should draft a facility construction plan and consult with the township government and the rural collective economic organization on relevant land use conditions such as the term of land use and land purposes. After reaching consensus, the construction plan and land use conditions shall be announced to the public through township and village group government affairs disclosure and other forms, and the announcement period shall be no less than 10 days; if there is no objection after the announcement period ends, the township government, the rural collective economic organization, and the operator shall sign a tripartite land use agreement. Where the transfer of land contractual management rights is involved, the operator shall first sign a transfer contract with the contracting farmer household in accordance with the law and obtain the consent of the contracting farmer household.
The county-level land and resources competent department and the agriculture department shall, according to their functions, promptly verify the filing information. If problems are found, such as unreasonable site selection, auxiliary facility land and supporting facility land exceeding the prescribed area, lack of content on land reclamation agreements, and filing non-agricultural construction land under the name of facility agricultural land; if the project establishment does not conform to the local agricultural development planning layout, the construction content does not conform to the requirements of facility agriculture operations and large-scale grain production, the construction of auxiliary facilities and supporting facilities does not conform to relevant technical standards, and the transfer of land contractual management rights does not conform to relevant provisions, then the land and resources competent department and the agriculture department shall, within 15 working days, respectively inform the township government, the rural collective economic organization, and the operator, and the township government shall supervise and urge correction.