Land transfer cannot be radical; People's Daily stresses putting farmers first
At present, a new round of land system reform is being rolled out in an all-round way, and among this, the transfer of rural contracted land has become a hot topic of social concern. How to make rural land transfer compatible with the pace of urbanisation and the scale of rural labour migration, with the progress of agricultural science and technology and the degree of improvement in production methods, and with the raising of the level of socialised agricultural services, is a long-term and important task currently facing us. Recently, a reporter interviewed relevant members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and members of democratic parties, who put forward suggestions on this.
Land transfer has three major benefits
What is the current situation of land transfer in China? According to reports, most farmers still regard contracted land as a “life-saving field” and an employment “insurance field”, and are unwilling or afraid to transfer it; the transfer period is short and the transferred plots are fragmented, which affects the quality and efficiency of land transfer; the lagging construction of service platforms leads to the situation where “those who want to transfer cannot transfer it out, and those who want to lease cannot lease it”; contract texts are not standardised, burying many hidden risks; and insufficient agricultural insurance constrains the scale of transfer, among other things.
“More and more agricultural production practice shows that rural land transfer has become an important means of transforming traditional agriculture and developing modern agriculture, and an important channel linking traditional individual agricultural producers with modern large-scale agricultural operating entities. Rural land transfer is conducive to promoting large-scale agricultural operation and realising the optimal allocation of production factors such as land, capital, information, management and labour, thereby helping to raise agricultural output efficiency and comparative returns. Realising rural land transfer can enable the participating entities to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results on multiple sides.” said Zhang Dongping, a member of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
“Baitian Village in Guangchang County, Jiangxi Province, used to grow crops such as sweet potatoes and soybeans on dry land, with an annual income of about 600 yuan per mu. Through land transfer, the income per mu from growing vegetables in greenhouse facilities exceeded 10,000 yuan, 10—15 times that of the past, directly driving up farmers' incomes.” said Sun Jusheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, by way of example.
In Sun Jusheng's view, land transfer has significance in four aspects. First, it promotes the adjustment and optimisation of the agricultural industrial structure, cultivates leading enterprises with local characteristics, builds bases for the processing industry of agricultural and sideline products, and improves economic efficiency; second, it promotes the transfer of rural labour. Rural land transfer frees some farmers from the land, allowing them to engage in secondary and tertiary industries such as agricultural product packaging and processing, logistics and distribution, agricultural materials supply, and daily life services, effectively accelerating the transfer of rural labour; third, it promotes higher efficiency and income for farmers. Through land transfer, on the one hand farmers can work nearby or go out to find new ways of earning money, and at the same time they can also obtain land rent income.
Land transfer cannot be radical
Land is the most basic guarantee of livelihood for farmers. In the process of urbanisation, land system reform is a threshold that must be crossed.
“We must respect farmers' wishes, and at the same time we cannot let land transfer that is conducive to the optimal allocation of resources be blocked.” Gu Shengzu, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association, believes that while promoting the citizenisation of the transferred population, the principle of safeguarding the rights and interests of the transferred population must be followed, and citizenisation must be advanced prudently and steadily. The reform of the household registration system and the land system cannot be pushed forward blindly.
Gu Shengzu further analysed that most migrant workers have unstable employment in cities, and if farmers were made to lose their land overnight, the whole society might experience great turmoil. The citizenisation of the transferred population is not simply a change of household registration, still less a blind effort to make farmers give up their land. If radical land reform is blindly pushed forward in household registration reform, a large number of farmers will lose their land overnight and become landless displaced people.
“As the saying goes, ‘a farmer's land is a farmer's heaven, and a farmer's happiness lies in the fields’.” Sun Jusheng said that to increase the vitality of rural land transfer, the first thing is to accelerate rural land transfer, and confirmation and registration is the precondition. Only by adhering to this basic precondition can we truly block the various excuses of a small number of town, township and village cadres to adjust, take back or redistribute land, truly give farming households a “reassurance pill”, and let them dare to transfer; the second is to step up publicity of relevant policies, so that farmers understand the policies, eliminate misunderstandings and transfer with confidence; in addition, step up guidance through typical examples. County, township and agriculture-related departments should give full play to the exemplary and demonstrative role of leading enterprises or large farming households, use the people around them to educate the people around them, and let farmers see the tangible effects of land transfer, thereby changing their thinking and accelerating land transfer. It is also necessary to actively explore a win-win model for both sides of the transfer. Sun Jusheng said that at present the income from farmers' land transfer is mainly paid in the form of fixed rent, and the transfer income has not grown correspondingly with continuous economic development. There is a lack of a growth mechanism, farmers' enthusiasm is not high, and the transfer period is generally short, which is unfavourable to the long-term development of agriculture, whereas the shareholding method can create a win-win situation between both sides and is suitable for promotion.
Zhang Dongping believes that in advancing rural land transfer, different policy guidance should be adopted according to different farming households' preferences regarding the functions of land resources. On the one hand, support for farmers' professional cooperatives should be increased, the market competitiveness of farmers' professional cooperation should be raised, the organisational behaviour of cooperatives should be standardised, and farmers' awareness of participation should be strengthened through the development of cooperatives. On the other hand, the level of social security for farmers should be raised. At present, the overall level of rural security is still on the low side, and there are relatively large gaps between regions, which has an important impact on farmers' willingness to transfer land. Generally, farming households with a higher overall security level and relatively sound social security have a relatively weakened reliance on land for security and are more willing to transfer land.
Safeguard the rights and interests of the agricultural transferred population
With the development of urbanisation, some farmers have become urban residents. In order to achieve better development in cities and towns, some of these farmers with urban household registration may no longer engage in agricultural production, but they are unwilling to give up the contracted management rights to agricultural land and the income brought by them.
“While promoting full coverage of basic public services in cities and towns, we must safeguard the land contracted management rights, the right to use homestead land, and the right to share in collective income of the agricultural transferred population.” Gu Shengzu believes that land property rights are lawful rights granted to farmers by law and cannot be arbitrarily deprived. For farmers, land has two functions: a guarantee of survival and capital for becoming prosperous. Most migrant workers' jobs and incomes are unstable, and land is their last reliance.
⟦NL> Gu Shengzu stressed that rural land transfer must adhere to the principle of “lawful, voluntary and compensated”, safeguarding farmers' right to decide whether to transfer land and their right to choose the form of land transfer, and safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of the agricultural transferred population. In the design of land property rights, the rights and interests of each entity must be safeguarded under the separation of the five rights: contracting rights, management rights, ownership rights, mortgage rights and guarantee rights. Land reform needs to stabilise ownership, retain contracting rights, transfer management rights, make good use of mortgage rights and guarantee rights. After land rights are confirmed, farmers should have “three rights and three certificates”. The three rights are: farmers' management rights to contracted land, farmers' right to use homestead land, and farmers' property rights to self-built houses on homestead land. The three certificates are: the certificate of farmers' contracted land management rights, the certificate of farmers' homestead land use rights, and the property ownership certificate for farmers' self-built houses on homestead land.
Zhang Dongping suggested that in order to advance the transfer of rural land contracting rights, while reforming household registration, the government should also issue corresponding policies, focusing on strengthening the production function of rural land, weakening the security function and property function of land, establishing an integrated urban-rural rural social security system, abolishing subsidy methods calculated on the basis of cultivated land area, and imposing penalties on cultivated land left idle or abandoned.