Use of facility agricultural land will be further regulated

In order to support the healthy development of facility agriculture, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture will increase policy support, guarantee the reasonable land needs of facility agriculture, and at the same time further strengthen law enforcement and supervision to regulate the use of facility agricultural land.

The "Notice on Further Supporting the Healthy Development of Facility Agriculture" jointly issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture was released to the public on the 17th. The notice made clear provisions on reasonably defining the scope of facility agricultural land, actively supporting land use for the development of facility agriculture, regulating the use of facility agricultural land, and strengthening services and supervision for facility agricultural land. The notice requires relevant departments in all localities to take the initiative to publicly disclose policies and regulations related to the construction and management of facility agricultural land, strengthen supervision of facility agricultural land, and strictly enforce the law on facility agricultural land.

In order to adapt to the requirements of agricultural modernization, the notice for the first time included 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 approval procedures for converting agricultural land to other uses. To prevent localities from arbitrarily or in disguised form converting facility agricultural land to non-agricultural use in the name of residential buildings and the like, the notice removed land for residential buildings from the scope of land for ancillary facilities. Land for supporting facilities for large-scale grain production may occupy basic farmland. In accordance with the overall requirements of the State Council for cleaning up administrative licensing, the notice changed the review system for facility agricultural land to a filing system.

The notice emphasizes that operators must use the land in accordance with the agreement to ensure that agricultural land remains in agricultural use; they must not change the purpose of the land, and are prohibited from arbitrarily or in disguised form using facility agricultural land for other non-agricultural construction; they must not exceed land use standards, and are prohibited from arbitrarily expanding the scale of facility land use or expanding it in disguised form through filing land use applications in multiple installments; they must not change the nature of facilities directly engaged in or serving agricultural production, or arbitrarily use the facilities for other business operations. The use and management of facility agricultural land will be included in the assessment of provincial governments' targets for cultivated land protection responsibility. Xinhua News Agency

Authoritative interview

Minister of Agriculture: Let land transfer and large-scale operations develop in a healthy way

Recently, the central authorities reviewed and approved the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights and Developing Moderately Large-Scale Agricultural Operations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). Regarding the transfer of rural land management rights and large-scale operations, the "Opinions" propose separating rural collective land ownership, contracting rights, and management rights into “three rights”, further deepening the reform of the rural land system.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China implemented household contracting operations, with collectives holding land ownership and farming households holding contracted management rights, and the “separation of two rights” achieved good results. Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said in a recent exclusive interview with a Xinhua News Agency reporter that at present, against the background of rapid industrialization and urbanization, a large number of people and laborers have left rural areas, and the farmers who previously all cultivated land have become differentiated; there are more and more cases in which contracted farming households do not operate their own contracted land, and in most areas, the conditions for separating contracting rights and management rights are basically mature. Realizing the separation of the three rights of collective land ownership, contracting rights, and management rights is an important basis for guiding the orderly transfer of land.

So, what is the current situation of the transfer of rural land management rights, and what specific measures does the "Opinions" propose to guide orderly transfer?

Minister Han said that in recent years, rural land transfer has shown a trend of acceleration. As the scale expands, land transfer has also shown a development trend of diverse entities and diverse forms. The transferees are still mainly farming households, but the proportion transferred to new agricultural operating entities such as cooperatives and leading enterprises has gradually risen; subcontracting among members of rural collective economic organizations is still the main form of transfer, but the proportion of transfer forms such as leasing and shareholding cooperation has risen relatively quickly.

“On the whole, China's rural land transfer is generally stable and healthy, but there are also some problems that need attention and resolution. For example, some places forcibly promote land transfer and one-sidedly pursue transfer scale and proportion, infringing on farmers' lawful rights and interests; in some places the land transfer market is not sound, and the level of service needs to be improved; in some cases industrial and commercial enterprises lease farmers' contracted land for long periods and large areas, and the problems of ‘non-grain’ and ‘non-agricultural’ use are relatively prominent. If these problems are not properly solved, they will affect the orderly transfer of rural land and the healthy development of moderately large-scale agricultural operations.” Minister Han said.

In response to the above problems, on the basis of summarizing practical experience at the grassroots level, the "Opinions" proposed specific measures in four aspects: First, adhere to the bottom line of land transfer. It is necessary to adhere to rural collective ownership of land, adhere to voluntariness, compensation, and legality, protect farmers' contracting rights and interests, and avoid launching a great leap forward, coercion and commandism, or arbitrary administrative direction. It is necessary to ensure that transferred land is used for agricultural production, with key support for large-scale grain production. Second, encourage innovation in forms of land transfer. Encourage farmers to transfer contracted land on a long-term basis in various forms, encourage resolving the fragmentation of contracted land through exchange, steadily advance pilot programs for mortgage and guarantee of land management rights, and allow farmers to use contracted management rights as shares to develop industrialized agricultural operations, etc. Third, strictly regulate land transfer behavior. Respect farmers' principal position in transfer, and village-level organizations may organize unified transfer only on the premise of written entrustment by farming households; it is prohibited to concentrate the contracted land of entire villages or groups for external investment solicitation and operation in the name of the minority obeying the majority. Fourth, strengthen the construction of the land transfer service system.