In-Depth Reflections on the Entities of Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations
Three Types of Current Situations in Promoting Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations
Recently, a survey on moderate-scale agricultural operations organized by the Counselors' Office of the Jiangsu Provincial Government showed that there are currently three main types of moderate-scale land operations by farmers in Jiangsu.
1. The situation in Kunshan City, where farmer land share cooperatives serve as an important vehicle for promoting moderate-scale agricultural operations. By the end of 2013, Kunshan City had established 114 specialized farmland share cooperatives, with 54,555 households participating as shareholders, a shareholding rate of 92.96%, a moderate-scale operation area of 176,800 mu, and a scale operation rate of 95%. In 2013, the specialized farmland share cooperatives achieved total annual revenue of 164 million yuan, distributed 130 million yuan in dividends based on shares, and paid an average dividend of 751 yuan per mu. Kunshan's main approaches: First, encourage the transfer of land contractual management rights. Where farmers entrust the collective to establish a land share cooperative, uniformly transfer land contractual management rights, reach the prescribed operation scale, and the operation and production are carried out by local farmers or cooperative organizations, the municipal and township (district) levels of finance provide a subsidy of 400 yuan per mu per year (of which the municipal level subsidizes 60% and the district and township level subsidizes 40%). Second, encourage the exchange of land contractual management rights for cooperative equity. It is explicitly stipulated that after the transfer of rural land contractual management rights, a land share cooperative system must be implemented, and by exchanging land contractual management rights for equity in land share cooperatives, dividend income is obtained each year, ensuring that farmer households have long-term stable land income. Third, encourage local farmer households (cooperative organizations) to operate. After land transfer, the contracted operators should in principle be mainly local rural laborers, and may also contract to foreign-invested planting and breeding enterprises and qualified leading agricultural enterprises, but they must directly manage and operate themselves, and local labor employment must reach more than 60%.
2. The situation in Jiangyin City, where agricultural enterprises serve as an important vehicle for promoting moderate-scale agricultural operations. By the end of 2013, Jiangyin City's moderate-scale agricultural operation area was 367,000 mu, with a scale operation ratio of 83%. Jiangyin City's moderate-scale operation entities mainly consist of enterprise industrial bases, farmer specialized cooperatives, family farms, and specialized large households. Enterprise industrial bases account for 105,000 mu, farmer specialized cooperatives 75,000 mu, family farms 28,000 mu, and specialized large households 159,000 mu. Jiangyin City mainly improves the foundation for moderate-scale agricultural operations by improving the transfer mechanism for land contractual management rights and the rural “three concentrations” (three exchanges), and mainly guides farmers in land transfer to promote agricultural scale operations through the following three models. First, by using the construction of modern agriculture demonstration zones and industrial and commercial enterprises running agriculture, farmers' contracted land is centrally transferred and exchanged, and the land is contracted for use by parks or enterprises operating on their own or through public bidding; second, collective economic organizations first concentrate the land contracted and planted by farmers by paying a certain amount of transfer fees, and then uniformly bid it out for contracting to develop large-scale and efficient agriculture; third, farmer households reach land management right transfers through self-negotiation, and households transferring management rights collect a certain contracting fee according to the actual land situation.
3. The situation in Dafeng City, where specialized large households serve as an important vehicle for promoting moderate-scale agricultural operations. By the end of 2013, Dafeng City's rural land transfer area was 900,000 mu, accounting for 72% of the contracted area; the moderate-scale operation area reached 1.38 million mu, accounting for 79% of the total cultivated land area, of which land concentration type was 550,000 mu, land cooperative operation type was 120,000 mu, and unified service type was 710,000 mu. For farmer households transferring land within the planned areas, annual financial support funds reached 8 million yuan, and at the same time rewards were given to village collectives and land share cooperatives that organized and guided land transfer. In 2013 alone, reward and subsidy funds reached 3.52 million yuan, of which each family farm meeting the reward conditions received a reward and subsidy of 100,000 yuan. The large planting and breeding household operation type is the earliest and most important form of moderate-scale agricultural operation in Dafeng City, and the most representative is large grain-growing households. In recent years, because a large amount of rural labor has shifted to urban employment, and because farming returns are not high, the rural labor force is mainly women and the elderly, and the quality of laborers is relatively low. In response to these circumstances, Dafeng City actively guides and encourages skilled rural farmers to transfer and uniformly cultivate contracted fields that others do not want to cultivate, promoting the concentration of land toward large households and implementing moderate-scale operations.
The Evolution and Development of Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations
The three cities surveyed this time each have their own characteristics, and all three places paid attention to adapting measures to local conditions in practical work and achieved relatively good results. Kunshan City's approach is close to that of Japan, South Korea, and China's Taiwan region: farmers establish share cooperatives and manage and operate them themselves. This approach represents the direction of China's modern agricultural development. Jiangyin City's approach, in practice, introduces capital, concepts, and information through enterprise operations to promote the development of modern agriculture. Dafeng City's approach is the main path for promoting moderate-scale operations in most areas of Jiangsu Province at the current stage and remains to be further developed and improved.
⟦NL> In order to deepen understanding and comprehension of these three situations, and to better grasp them, the author, as a witness to moderate-scale agricultural operations in Jiangsu, would like to make some exploratory analysis. In 1969, the author began to come into contact with agriculture and rural work as an educated youth sent to the countryside, and has worked up to now for 45 years. Over several decades, the author has experienced five stages of land system reform, with the general trajectory as follows: The first stage was the period of the people's communes in the 1960s, when land was collectively operated. I remember that at that time we were in the fields all year round and could earn varying amounts of a few cents or a few tenths of a yuan each day. In the production team where the author was located, I remember that even on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the production team leader took us to the fields, and even so we still could not solve the problem of food and clothing. The second stage came in the 1970s-1980s, when the country carried out reform and opening up and rural areas implemented the household contract responsibility system. The reform of the land system greatly liberated rural labor productivity. In 1978, Jiangsu's grain output was more than 30 billion jin, and by 1984 grain output reached more than 60 billion jin. It took 6 years for grain output to double. Those of us engaged in agriculture believed that the energy of the land contract responsibility policy was enormous, like setting off an atomic bomb. The third stage came in the 1980s-1990s. With the development of national industrialization and urbanization, rural labor began to transfer. Farmers in southern Jiangsu transferred locally to develop township industries, while farmers in central and northern Jiangsu transferred to other places. Skilled craftsmen and construction teams began to travel north and south, rural labor decreased, specialized large households and rural brokers appeared, and land transfer began to be proposed. The fourth stage entered the new century, especially after the country joined the WTO, and agriculture and rural areas entered a key period of development. During this period, Jiangsu proposed the development of agriculture by “three types of capital” namely industrial and commercial capital, private capital, and foreign capital. The entry of these three types of capital not only brought a large amount of capital, but more importantly brought new business concepts. Jiangsu's agriculture was injected with new vitality, and agriculture developed vigorously. The fifth stage, building on the development in the first decade of the new century, is the survey we conducted recently, which again made everyone's eyes light up: models such as those in Kunshan and many other places across the province, with farmer land share cooperative organizations as the operating entities, have gradually emerged on the rural land of Jiangsu with tenacious vitality.
Several Suggestions on Building the Entities of Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations
1. Farmer land share cooperative organizations becoming the main entities of moderate-scale agricultural operations should be regarded as the direction of China's modern agriculture. Since reform and opening up, the land system has gone from the people's commune system, to the household contract responsibility system for land, to land transfer, and then to moderate-scale operations. Who is the main entity of moderate-scale operations? According to China's specific national conditions, such as a large population and limited land, moderate-scale efficiency, a large market, and large-scale circulation, and especially China's land system, the main entity of moderate-scale operations in China's modern agriculture should mainly be farmer land share cooperative organizations. The important and profound connotation lies in the transfer of rural land contracting rights. The best approach is to implement a land share cooperative system, by exchanging land contractual management rights for equity in land share cooperatives, and by obtaining dividend income each year to ensure that farmer households have long-term stable land income. Developing in this way can further raise the income of farmers who transfer land, namely including land transfer fees, wage income from labor, and income from share dividends. The evolution of the land system in Kunshan over more than thirty years fully verifies this thesis, and in practice it has also reached this point. The models provided by Japan, South Korea, and China's Taiwan region, with their small-peasant economies, all take farmers and farmer economic cooperatives as the main entities.
2. Enterprise investment and the involvement of industrial and commercial capital may be an intermediate process in promoting moderate-scale operations. Jiangsu's step in this direction was proposed around the turn of the new century. At that time, on the one hand, after more than 20 years of development since reform and opening up in rural areas, agriculture and rural areas needed new development; on the other hand, after joining the WTO, agriculture and rural areas faced new challenges. Under these circumstances, after investigation and research, the development of agriculture by “three types of capital” was proposed. The development of agriculture by “three types of capital” not only brought a large amount of investment, but also introduced new concepts and promoted the vigorous development of agriculture and rural areas. In this process, the broad masses of farmers were tempered and increased their abilities. Farmers were not only the masters of rural land, but also gradually became masters of the agricultural market economy.
3. At present, the wide-ranging and large-number farmer households and specialized large households should strive to explore effective paths for developing moderate-scale operations. When we conducted the survey in Dafeng City, we discussed with local officials in charge of agriculture and rural affairs whether, from farmer households and specialized large households to moderate-scale agricultural operations, the path should be through the involvement of industrial and commercial enterprises, or through exploring direct development of moderate-scale operations by farmers, specialized large households, or farmer land share cooperative organizations, or perhaps a combination of both. I always feel that according to China's national conditions and rural realities, it is still necessary to clarify the focus, the points of effort, and the primary-secondary relationship, so as to help enrich and improve policies and measures. These are realistic topics worth discussing and still require profound new answers.