Smallholder Farmers Can Also Develop Modern Agriculture: A Full Analysis of Feasible Paths
The State Council recently issued the "National Plan for Agricultural Modernization (2016-2020)", proposing to "guide farmers to transfer land management rights in a lawful, voluntary and orderly manner, and encourage farmers to eliminate field ridges and achieve contiguous farming through land swaps of contracted land, joint farming and joint planting and other means, so as to solve the problem of fragmented rural land." In reality, farmers in many rural areas, through innovations in business forms, have advanced the development of agricultural modernization without transferring land or changing the main body of agricultural operation, and have explored a variety of paths to agricultural modernization with ordinary farmers as the main body. Among the more typical ones are the household-based contiguous farming model in Shayang, Hubei; the joint farming and joint planting model in Sheyang County, Jiangsu; and the concentrated farmland transfer model in Fanchang County, Anhui.
The household-based contiguous farming model in Shayang County refers to farmers adjusting scattered, fragmented land into one plot or one stretch, thereby achieving concentrated contiguous farming of land and expanding large-scale land operation. According to preliminary estimates, household-based contiguous farming can increase machinery use efficiency by 40%, reduce monetary input costs by 25%, reduce labor input time by 75%, and raise comprehensive production capacity by 4 times. Take a farmer in Xinhe Village of the county as an example: the farmer had more than ten mu of contracted land, scattered into more than twenty plots, and during the more than 2 months from rice transplanting to field drying, irrigation alone consumed a great deal of labor. After the land was made contiguous, the farmer released water into the highest plot and let it flow by gravity for irrigation, so there was no fear of water flowing into others' fields, and no need to frequently move water pipes and pumps, making farming much easier.
The joint farming and joint planting model in Sheyang County refers to farmers joining together to break down field ridges, uniformly carrying out rotary tillage, harrowing, land leveling and other farming operations, and selecting a unified variety for unified sowing, thereby achieving large-scale agricultural services. Through the integration of property rights, the joint farming and joint planting model connects scattered smallholders with large-scale socialized services, and can increase comprehensive agricultural returns by more than 500 yuan/mu. This includes adopting mechanical rice transplanting technology and drilling technology to reduce seed costs by 47 yuan/mu; breaking down field ridges and uniformly using machinery to improve machinery use efficiency and reduce machinery costs by 35 yuan/mu; and unifying technology promotion and guidance to improve crop yield and quality, with wheat yield increasing by more than 100 jin/mu and the selling price rising by 0.1 yuan/jin.
The concentrated farmland transfer model in Fanchang County refers to farmers dividing contracted land into a "self-cultivation functional zone" and a "transfer functional zone." Farmers who need to cultivate land obtain concentrated contiguous contracted land in the "self-cultivation functional zone" according to the area of the second round of extended contracts, while farmers who do not need to cultivate land transfer their land out, and family farms that take in land obtain concentrated contiguous land from the "transfer functional zone." This solves the problems of scattered land transfer and "flower-arranged land" caused by differences in farmers' willingness to transfer land. In addition, farmers gather their willingness to transfer land once every 5-10 years, thus forming a "reversible" land transfer model, so migrant workers do not need to worry that they will have no land to cultivate if they return to the countryside one day.
The above three innovations in agricultural operation forms, while promoting the development of agricultural modernization, include, protect and realize the interests of smallholders to varying degrees.
First, they solve the production difficulties of smallholders through different means and advance the development of agricultural modernization. The household-based contiguous farming model solves the problem of land fragmentation caused by the egalitarian allocation of land rights; the joint farming and joint planting model solves the problem of diseconomies of scale in agricultural services for smallholders; and the concentrated farmland transfer model solves the problem of land fragmentation caused by the separation of people and land. These explorations have, to varying degrees, raised the degree of socialization and the technical level of agricultural production, and the farmer group can generally share in the benefits of agricultural modernization.
Second, they safeguard farmers' employment and survival in the process of agricultural modernization. The main body of both the household-based contiguous farming model and the joint farming and joint planting model is smallholders. The former emphasizes the "household-based" principle, that is, contiguous farming responds to the demands of smallholders rather than new-type agricultural operation entities. The latter emphasizes the "joint" principle, that is, smallholders join together to achieve large-scale agricultural services. The concentrated farmland transfer model emphasizes the "reversible" principle, that is, safeguarding the right of migrant workers to return to their hometowns to cultivate land. The above three explorations do not deprive farmers of the right to cultivate land, and while improving agricultural operation efficiency, they can also enable farmers to obtain certain employment and social security from the land.
There can be many ways to develop modern agriculture. Especially given that our country has a large rural population and most farmers still need to rely on land for employment and social security, exploring a path to agricultural modernization with smallholders as the main body is conducive both to raising the level of agricultural modernization and to meeting farmers' employment and social security needs. All localities should fully respect farmers' pioneering spirit, explore a path to agricultural modernization with farmers as the main body in light of local conditions, protect farmers' interests, solve the problem of land fragmentation for ordinary farmers, and treat this as an important component of agricultural modernization.