How can rural reform prevent excessive concentration of land? Expert interpretation

    At present, a new round of rural reform is unfolding across the country. Farmers' land ownership rights, contract rights and management rights are achieving the “separation of three rights”, new types of agricultural business entities are also emerging in diversified forms, and large-scale land management is becoming a trend. But Han Jun, deputy director of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Office, said at the 2014 Sichuan Agricultural Expo held in Chengdu that while rural reform should avoid land being left idle and management scales being too fragmented, it must also prevent excessive concentration of land.

Han Jun believes that from a macro perspective, emphasizing appropriate scale is mainly out of consideration for labor transfer. “Even if our labor transfer is very fast, the pattern of having many people and little land cannot be changed.” Han Jun said that according to forecasts, China's total population will reach 1.45 billion in 2030, the urbanization rate will reach 67%, and the rural permanent resident population will still be 480 million. At present, the per capita arable land in rural areas is 2 mu, and by 2030 the per capita arable land will be less than 4 mu, and the per capita arable land for each agricultural laborer will not exceed 12 mu. Such a scale is almost the smallest in the world, and it is a basic national condition that cannot be changed.

“Therefore, we must prevent excessive concentration of land, prevent artificial large households, and not try to help seedlings grow by pulling them up. We must avoid land being left idle and management scales being too fragmented, and also prevent excessive concentration of land. We must adhere to family management as the foundation and vigorously develop new types of agricultural entities.” Han Jun said.

According to reports, the pace of rural land transfer across the country, including Sichuan, has accelerated. By the end of 2013, the total transferred contracted land nationwide had reached 340 million mu, accounting for 26% of the total household contracted area. However, Han Jun believes that family management is still the most basic form of management. “From the perspective of agricultural modernization around the world, whether in countries with lots of land and few people such as the United States, Canada and Australia, or in European countries such as Germany and France, including Latin American countries such as Brazil and Argentina, basically their agricultural business entities are all family farms.”

Han Jun said that land transfer and the development of appropriate-scale management must ensure the dominant position of farmers' household contract management. The expansion of agricultural scale is an inevitable trend, but we cannot one-sidedly pursue large scale, nor pursue rapid land transfer. Appropriate scale suits China's national conditions. We must consider the current level of mechanization and service levels, must consider the speed of labor transfer, and must also consider the management capacity of these large-scale households.