Deepening land system reform must respect objective laws

Editor's note: General Secretary Xi Jinping recently chaired the fifth meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform in Beijing. The meeting reviewed the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Contracted Management Rights and Developing Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations" and the "Pilot Plan for Actively Developing Farmers' Shareholding Cooperatives and Empowering Collective Asset Shares and Reform". Both involve issues concerning farmers and land.

General Secretary Xi pointed out at the meeting that at the current stage, in deepening rural land system reform, more consideration must be given to advancing China's agricultural modernization. It is necessary to solve both the agricultural problem and the farmer problem well, and to blaze a path of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics.

So, what is the path of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics? What laws does the central government intend to emphasize and follow in the implementation opinions and plan for rural land system reform announced this time?

Zhu Qizhen, a special commentator for China Rural Voice and an expert on agriculture, rural areas and farmers, believes that in rural land reform, whether guiding land transfer, developing farmers' shareholding cooperatives, or exploring effective forms of realization of collective ownership, it is necessary to abide by the laws of agricultural development and the laws of urban-rural relations development. One must not transfer land for the sake of transfer, or cooperate for the sake of shares.

The General Secretary's speech particularly emphasized three points: First, it stressed that developing large-scale agricultural operations must be compatible with the urbanization process, advances in agricultural science and technology, and the degree of improvement in production methods. This is the foundation and necessary condition for realizing large-scale agricultural operations. That is to say, only when thorough non-agricultural transfer of farmers is achieved in the urbanization process, and when farmers no longer regard agricultural production and land as their main source of income, are the conditions for agricultural scale operations in place. Large-scale operations also depend on advances in agricultural science and technology and improvements in production methods. Without modern agricultural equipment conditions, pursuing large-scale operations is likewise unrealistic. Second, the principal position of farmers must be highlighted. The General Secretary stressed that farmers should be made active participants in and true beneficiaries of moderate-scale land operations. The basic agricultural reality that ordinary farming households operating their own contracted farmland still constitute the majority must not be ignored, and one must not one-sidedly pursue speed and size. In practice there is a tendency to blindly worship large and foreign things, and to seize every minute, without respecting the characteristics and laws of agriculture itself. Household farming is the organizational form best suited to agricultural production. As long as the characteristics of agricultural production remain unchanged, this adaptability will not change. This law of agricultural development must be respected. Industrial and commercial enterprises leasing farmers' contracted land is a special behavior, not a universal law. Therefore, "there must be strict thresholds, and systems for qualification review, project review, and risk guarantee funds must be established, with clear provisions on access and supervision systems," to prevent the emergence of non-agriculturalization.

Zhu Qizhen believes that in the processes of land transfer, urbanization, and agricultural modernization, farmers' interests must be safeguarded and farmers' principal position must be respected. But in the view of Hu Liangbo, a farmer observer for China Rural Voice, in the current actual situation of rural land transfer, there indeed exist behaviors by some local governments that violate farmers' wishes and harm farmers' interests.

Farmer observer Hu Liangbo said: "In the area of farmers' land transfer, some local governments and some village cadres feel that this is a task. Some village-level cadres are from an aging generation, with outdated thinking and a relatively strong mentality of coercion and oppression. The impression given to ordinary people is: you can't disobey the leadership, or you'll be asking for trouble. In some transferred land, it is said that the transfer funds for this mu of land already exceed the production funds, but it is still being transferred."

Zhu Qizhen, commentator for China Rural Voice, said: "In response to such phenomena, the third point emphasized by these regulations is that land reform must respect farmers' wishes and must not engage in blind administrative command. Farmers are the main body of agricultural production and the main body protecting cultivated land. No matter what kind of farmers are developed, excluding farmers is unimaginable. Therefore, respecting farmers' wishes is an important condition for safeguarding agricultural security. Land transfer must not harm farmers' rights and interests, must not change land use, and must not damage comprehensive agricultural production capacity. In practice we see that harming farmers' interests is often linked with harming agricultural development and with destructive and predatory use of land. Farmers' wishes must be respected, and the transfer of land management rights must adhere to the law and voluntariness. Coercive orders must not be used, and blind administrative command must not be used. The phenomenon of blind administrative command does exist, reflecting that some local governments lack a basic understanding of agricultural laws, and also lack a minimal sense of the overall situation and social responsibility."