Rational Land Transfer Requires Properly Handling Six Relationships
In order to further understand the current situation of rural land transfer, better promote the transfer of rural land contractual management rights in accordance with the law in a regulated and orderly manner, and actively explore new paths for large-scale land management, the author recently went to Zhuxianzhuang Town and Huigu Town in Yongqiao District, Suzhou City, Anhui Province, in conjunction with the Party's mass line education and practice activities, to conduct a special investigation into the transfer and management of rural contracted land. The two towns currently have a population of 92,000, with 133,000 mu of cultivated land, and 1.5 mu of cultivated land per capita. The basic situation of land transfer is as follows:
From the perspective of lessees, the two towns have transferred 42,100 mu of land (excluding private transfers among individuals), with a land transfer rate of 31.7%, higher than Suzhou City but lower than the provincial average. Among these, industrial and commercial enterprises account for 28.9% of transfers, agricultural cooperatives 23.5%, and family farms, large grain-growing households and others 47.6%.
From the perspective of transfer methods, leasing is the main method, accounting for more than 90% of the transferred area; among these, CITIC Trust cooperated with the Yongqiao District Government to formally establish China's first land transfer trust plan - CITIC Rural Land Contractual Management Rights Collective Trust Plan Phase 1301, which has transferred 5,400 mu of land. Next is trusteeship, accounting for less than 10%. The relatively successful example is the "Field Nanny" trusteeship model of Yilida Cooperative. Because land trusteeship satisfies some farmers' practical needs of "cherishing the land" while being able to "leave the land," it has a certain space for development in local areas and at specific stages.
From the perspective of transfer prices, the land leased by Diyuan Company in Zhuxianzhuang Town has the highest price, at 1,000 jin of wheat/mu/year (equivalent to 1,200 yuan); the rest basically remain at 800-900 jin of wheat/mu/year (equivalent to 960-1,080 yuan), far higher than the city's average land transfer price of 600 yuan/mu/year. At present, farmers in the two towns expect a psychological price for land transfer of no less than 900 jin of wheat/mu/year.
From the perspective of operations after transfer, large-scale transferred land (over 100 mu) is basically used for cash crops, improved seed breeding, and nursery stock and flowers, while not much is used for field crops. The reason is that excessively high transfer prices make growing field crops basically unprofitable. The declining comparative benefit of grain cultivation has to some extent dampened the enthusiasm of family farms and other new types of operating entities for growing grain. The tendency toward "de-agriculturalization" and "de-grainization" in current land transfer deserves vigilance. However, regardless of whether land is transferred or not, there is no abandoned cultivated land in the entire city of Suzhou.
From the perspective of government involvement in transfers, more than one-third of land transfers involve enterprises and other lessees directly signing transfer agreements with township governments, after which township governments sign with village committees, and village committees sign with villagers. During visits, many people believed that strong government involvement not only pushed up land transfer prices but also made the government the final guarantor of land transfer risks.
The transfer of land contractual management rights is an inevitable result of the coordinated development of rural productive forces and production relations. To promote the transfer of land contractual management rights, the government should both actively provide services and support and steadily guide and supervise, properly handling the six major relationships, including stabilizing household contracting and promoting appropriately scaled operations, so as to promote the rational transfer of rural contracted land.
First, properly handle the relationship between stabilizing the household contracting system and promoting appropriately scaled land operations. The household contracting system is the cornerstone of the Party's rural policy and must be kept stable and unchanged for a long time without wavering. At the same time, it must be fully recognized that modern agriculture is an industry built on the foundation of scaled operations. Under the household contracting system, land transfer can effectively promote industrialized agricultural operations at scale, thereby fundamentally resolving the contradiction between small-scale agricultural production and large-scale socialized production. Therefore, on the premise of stabilizing contracting rights, efforts should be vigorously made to promote the transfer of management rights and lay the foundation for modern agriculture. The scale of land transfer should be appropriate. Wang Xiang, a family farm owner in Zhuxianzhuang Town, and others reported that farming more land does not necessarily mean making more money, and excessive land concentration can produce the phenomenon of "diseconomies of scale." From the situation of local family farm owners, a family farm with 4 laborers currently has a most suitable scale of 200 mu. Beyond 200 mu, planting benefits instead decline.
Second, properly handle the relationship between land rights confirmation, registration and certification and promoting land transfer. Land rights confirmation, registration and certification is the foundational work of rural property rights system reform. Its essence is the legal confirmation and protection of farmers' property rights, giving farmers who transfer land a "reassurance pill." Therefore, rights confirmation and certification not only did not hinder land transfer, but instead powerfully promoted rural land transfer, rural financial innovation, and rural land share cooperation. Next, we can learn from the "rights confirmation" model of Linyi, Shandong Province. On the basis of confirming, registering and certifying rural second-round land contracting rights, we can confirm, register and certify rural housing ownership, farmers' homestead use rights, rural collective land ownership, and rural construction land ownership, so as to further revitalize rural resources and increase collective economic income and farmers' property income.
Third, properly handle the relationship between market entities and government leadership in land transfer. The transfer of land contractual management rights is essentially a market behavior. The subject of transfer is farmers, not officials, and the driving force of transfer is the market, not the government. Whether land is transferred and in what manner should first respect farmers' wishes and be decided by farmers themselves, with farmers' subject rights, choice rights and negotiation rights always remaining in farmers' hands. Facing the rapidly growing trend of land transfer, local governments should neither act blindly and rush headlong into mass action, nor fail to act; they should go with the trend, guide appropriately, regulate management, provide efficient services, and supervise effectively. By improving the land contractual management rights transfer platform, supporting social intermediary assessment institutions for land transfer, doing a good job in rural land rights confirmation, registration and certification, actively resolving land transfer disputes, and properly resolving historical leftover problems in rights confirmation, they can ensure that land transfer "must not change the collective ownership nature of land, must not change land use, and must not harm farmers' land contracting rights and interests." For appropriately scaled land transfer, the socialized service system is key. Whether for market entities or government leadership, this issue should be taken seriously. For example, Li Qingwu of the Huaihe Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Huigu Town reported that the cooperative implements order-based operations, with excellent service and low charges, providing full-process mechanized "one-stop" services for plowing, planting and harvesting on more than 20,000 mu of transferred farmland contracted by family farms. Although charges are lower, because the service scope is stable and the service distance is shorter, the cooperative has achieved sustained income growth and realized a "win-win" for both the cooperative and farmers.
Fourth, properly handle the relationship between innovating land transfer forms and preventing land transfer risks. On the basis of adhering to farmers' voluntariness, expand the scope of land trusts and trusteeship, actively explore new paths for land transfer such as shareholding systems, "land banks," and confirming rights and shares without confirming land, and under the premise of fully safeguarding farmers' long-term interests and rural stability, actively and steadily concentrate land management rights gradually into new types of agricultural operating entities. While innovating transfer forms, attention should be paid to preventing transfer risks. Help new types of agricultural operating entities such as consortiums improve internal management and operation systems and interest linkage mechanisms, actively raise the standards and expand coverage of policy-based agricultural insurance for new types of agricultural operating entities, and establish mechanisms for preventing agricultural production risks; fully give play to the government's supervisory role in land transfer, explore the establishment of a land transfer risk deposit mechanism, and avoid the government becoming the only "guarantor."
Fifth, properly handle the relationship between the "universal benefit system" and "differentiated" agricultural subsidies. At present, the state implements a "universal benefit system" preferential agricultural policy that distributes agricultural subsidies according to the second-round rural land contracting area of 1995. This policy should be implemented persistently. However, as the state's fiscal capacity continues to strengthen, differentiated support policies should be implemented for the incremental portion of preferential agricultural funds, focusing on new types of agricultural operating entities, especially those engaged in grain crop cultivation, and implementing differentiated agricultural subsidies according to the actual land area operated by new types of agricultural operating entities. Actively explore a preferential agricultural mechanism for allocating agriculture-related funds and projects according to the agricultural population of administrative jurisdictions.
Sixth, properly handle the relationship between promoting farmers' "de-agriculturalization" and preventing the "de-agriculturalization" of farmland. Farmers' "de-agriculturalization" by no means implies the "de-agriculturalization" of farmland. According to statistics, in the large-scale land transfer in the two towns, the proportion used for grain cultivation is less than 30%, and less than 10% of the land transferred by industrial and commercial enterprises is used for grain cultivation, resulting in a situation where the transferred area increases while the grain-growing area decreases. If this continues over time, it will inevitably affect national food security. To curb "de-grainization" and "de-agriculturalization" after land transfer, it is necessary to solve the problem of low comparative benefits of grain cultivation, continuously increase support for major grain-producing areas, focus on supporting the development of large-scale grain production operating entities, and steadily raise grain prices; adhere to use control in land transfer, strictly control the use of land transfer as a pretext for "non-agricultural" industries and "non-agricultural" construction, hold fast to the red line, and hold the bottom line. Through rational land transfer, deeply resolve social problems such as "where people go, where land is transferred, who farms the fields, and where the money comes from," revitalize production factors, and coordinate urban and rural development.