Farmer land withdrawal exploration still needs more top-level design
Moderate-scale farming calls for a land concentration mechanism
In November 2014, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Guiding the Orderly Transfer of Rural Land Management Rights to Develop Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations," proposing that "land transfer and moderate-scale operations are the only way to develop modern agriculture... and should be actively and steadily advanced."
This judgment has been proven correct by practice in numerous areas, including Liangping County in Chongqing: just as many farmers in Liangping County assert that farming has no "money prospects," others engaged in moderate-scale operations, with government rewards and support, have introduced socialized services and are heading toward bright "money prospects."
"Everyone says growing grain doesn't make money, and at first I felt there was no point either," said Zhang Liangfu, a villager in his early 30s from Wannian Village, Pingjin Town, Liangping County. Last year, he transferred more than 200 mu of rice paddies in Wannian Village to grow rice, earned more than 100,000 yuan, and also got married. The most critical factor in his "comeback" was precisely moderate-scale operation.
In the long run, promoting the transformation of agriculture from traditional dispersed household operation to a new operating system combining intensification, specialization, organization and socialization is the only way for China to build itself into a modern agricultural power.
However, as pointed out in the "National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)," China has an excessive rural population and scarce agricultural land and water resources. Under the urban-rural dual system, large-scale land operation is difficult to advance, and traditional production methods are difficult to change. This is the root of the "three rural issues." China's per capita arable land area is only 0.1 hectares, and the average land operation scale per rural household is about 0.6 hectares, far below the threshold for large-scale agricultural operation.
Therefore, achieving moderate scale inevitably requires concentrating dispersed rural land. Previously, the main method of concentrating land was "transfer," which is now relatively mature and has been promoted nationwide; while "land withdrawal" in places such as Liangping is a new phenomenon, still cautiously "feeling for stones while crossing the river."
Both "transfer" and "withdrawal" involve the transfer of farmers' contracted land management rights, but the latter obviously goes further. If, in land "transfer," the taker is similar to a "renter," then after farmers "withdraw from land," the taker is closer to a "buyer," giving them more courage and confidence to increase investment and move toward modern agriculture in the strict sense.
The term "land withdrawal" has begun to appear in official documents
The reporter noted that in recent years, the phrase "farmers voluntarily withdraw from contracted land management rights" has begun to appear in official documents.
In August 2015, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation of Agricultural Development Methods," which clearly stated in the section "Promoting Various Forms of Moderate-Scale Agricultural Operations" that, on the basis of adhering to collective ownership of rural land and fully respecting farmers' wishes, pilot programs for paid withdrawal of farmers' contracted land should be steadily carried out in rural reform pilot areas, guiding farmers with stable non-agricultural employment income who have long resided and lived in cities and towns to voluntarily withdraw from contracted land management rights.
On January 22 of this year, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council presided over an executive meeting of the State Council to deploy and deepen the advancement of people-centered new-type urbanization. The meeting noted that urbanization is where China's greatest development potential lies. Among the four major measures determined at the meeting was "relaxing the conditions for agricultural transfer population to obtain urban household registration, and exploring a lawful, voluntary and paid withdrawal mechanism for farmers who settle in cities regarding land contracting rights, homestead use rights and rights to distribution of collective income."
Liangping County is one of the first three areas to explore the "pilot withdrawal of contracted land management rights."
On August 5, the "Notice of the State Council on Implementing Several Fiscal Policies to Support the Citizenization of Agricultural Transfer Population" was published, requiring: gradually establish a withdrawal mechanism for the relevant rights and interests in rural areas of farmers who settle in cities, and actively guide and support farmers who settle in cities to lawfully, voluntarily and with compensation transfer the relevant rights and interests.
On August 29, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly approved 9 areas to carry out pilot programs.
Steady and prudent "land withdrawal" promotes farmers' income growth and accelerates new-type urbanization
Liangping County's earlier exploration of "land withdrawal" shows that steadily and prudently promoting "land withdrawal" can boost agricultural efficiency and farmers' income, and accelerate new-type urbanization and industrialization.
As of August, 101 farmers in Liangping County had voluntarily "withdrawn from land" totaling 297.47 mu, and 6 operating entities had been introduced, achieving moderate-scale operations in Liangping pomelo, protected fruits and vegetables, high-grade cold-water fish, lotus root and others, increasing agricultural benefits, collective economic income and farmers' property income. Group 1 of Yihe Village, Panlong Town thus obtained 137,900 yuan in collective income, and farmers of the former Huayuan No. 1 Community in Hexing Town received an average dividend of 900 yuan per person last year.
The withdrawal of agricultural transfer population from contracted land and the monetization of their land property rights increase the capital they have for entering cities, can also provide stable human resources for industry, and accelerate the development of new-type urbanization and industrialization.
Liangping County has initially explored and formed a diversified land withdrawal model of "multi-party linkage and combination of withdrawal and use," featuring "the contracting party has a withdrawal channel, the withdrawing party has the will to withdraw, the receiving party has land demand, and the government has supporting policies." It can meet the differentiated "land withdrawal" needs of some localities and farmers, making the complex and sensitive "land withdrawal" standardized, orderly and risk-controllable. It is a multi-party win-win "Pareto improvement" that conforms to the trend.
The "citizenization" of hundreds of millions of farmers cannot avoid the "land withdrawal" issue
In the long run, more and more farmers will leave the land and become urban citizens. Without a proper channel for "land withdrawal," more land may be left abandoned. From this perspective, Liangping County's exploration is of far-reaching significance. In the future, in the context that "the core of China's urbanization is the citizenization of farmers," more and more "citizenized" farmers will find it difficult to avoid the "land withdrawal" issue. Whether to allow "land withdrawal" and how to carry it out in an orderly manner require more attention and research.
Official data show that in 1978, China's urban permanent resident population was 170 million, and by 2015 it reached 770 million. The urbanization rate rose from 17.9% in 1978 to 56.1% in 2015. The rapid advancement of urbanization absorbed a large amount of rural labor for transfer employment, promoted sustained and rapid national economic development, brought profound changes in social structure, and promoted an all-round improvement in the living standards of urban and rural residents.
However, China's urbanization rate by household registration population is far lower than the urbanization rate by permanent resident population. In 2015, the difference between the two was 16.2 percentage points. The main reason lies in the urban-rural dual structure: previously, the rural population was the agricultural population, and people living in cities were the urban population. In the wave of "working away from home," rural people flocked to cities to work and buy property. Although they lived and worked in cities, their household registration did not change accordingly, thus creating this discrepancy in the data.
At present, migrant workers living in cities and their families form a huge population measured in the hundreds of millions. These "pseudo-urban population" living an "amphibious" life have not obtained urban household registration. To further improve the quality of China's urbanization, especially to accelerate the citizenization of migrant workers, consensus has long been reached among both officials and the public.
According to the goals proposed in the "National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)," by 2020, China's urbanization rate by permanent resident population will reach about 60%, and the urbanization rate by household registration population will reach about 45%, striving to achieve urban household registration for about 100 million agricultural transfer population and other permanent residents.
Through what paths will these goals be achieved? How will farmers who obtain urban household registration handle their contracted land, and how can the phenomenon of "separation of people and land" among the agricultural transfer population be resolved? How can deepening reform solve the problem that the current land system does not adapt to urbanization development? These issues are particularly eye-catching.
The rural land contracting system should adapt to agricultural production and operation methods
The "Rural Land Contracting Law" began to be implemented in 2003. Over the past 13 years, China's economy and society have developed rapidly, urbanization has advanced rapidly, hundreds of millions of rural laborers have found employment in cities and towns, and large numbers of new operating entities such as specialized cooperatives, family farms and leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization have emerged. The new situation calls for innovation and reform of the rural land system, so that the rural land contracting system adapts to agricultural production and operation methods.
What cannot be ignored is that in recent years, some rural areas have begun to see farmers leaving their hometowns, villages becoming hollowed out, and land being abandoned. After the abolition of the agricultural tax in 2006, the cost of idle rural land became very low, and the severity of abandonment can no longer be ignored. Behind this is some farmers' choice to "withdraw from land" by "voting with their feet."
The reality of "some land being abandoned" causes the value of land to drain away in vain. People need to come up with countermeasures to awaken the value sleeping in the land.
Obviously, for some farmers, the time for "land withdrawal" has matured. In the wave of working away from home, some farmers have already accumulated certain skills and assets. They have become "urban-rural waverers" or "quasi-urban people," and contracted land has become less important. Their risk in "withdrawing from land" is relatively small, and the compensation obtained from monetizing the right to contracted land management can also help them establish themselves in cities faster and better, accelerating the citizenization of farmers entering cities and the process of new-type urbanization.
On the other hand, individual circumstances cannot be equated with the whole. For farmers, "land withdrawal" after all means "playing the last card." Although from the practice in Liangping County, some farmers rely less and less on land, as a whole, farmers' "land withdrawal" still entails certain risks. Therefore, risk prevention and control should run through the entire process of reform piloting. In the long run, the most important fundamental solution for this work is to improve farmers' ability to survive in cities and towns.
The problems faced by "land withdrawal" need authoritative legal answers
China Youth Daily - Youth.cn reporters noted that Liangping County, as one of the "pilot areas for withdrawal of contracted land management rights," has already explored ideas and paths sufficient to guide grassroots practice. However, this exploration still faces certain uncertainties, and the "land withdrawal" work still needs more top-level design.
The first issue is the need to incorporate a more complete contracted land withdrawal mechanism into the "Rural Land Contracting Law," so that this work has a legal basis.
The current "Rural Land Contracting Law" touches on the "withdrawal" of contracted land.
Article 26 of the law provides that during the contract period, if the contracting household moves entirely into a city divided into districts and converts to a non-agricultural household registration, it shall return the contracted cultivated land and grassland to the contracting party. This can be understood as "statutory withdrawal."
Article 29 of the law provides that during the contract period, the contracting party may voluntarily return the contracted land to the contracting party. If the contracting party voluntarily returns the contracted land, it shall notify the contracting party in writing half a year in advance. This can be understood as "voluntary withdrawal."
However, these provisions are too broad and difficult to regulate and adjust the complex "land withdrawal" behavior. The law must make clearer definitions on two core issues: how to protect the rights and interests of farmers who "withdraw from land," and how to ensure the effective use of land not withdrawn.
At present, the reporter has not found regulations issued by the legislature related to "withdrawal from contracted land." For example, besides contracted land, can homestead land, private plots and others also be "withdrawn"? The second round of land contracting contracts still has more than 10 years to run. Is land withdrawal "valid until expiration" or "permanently valid"? After the contract period expires, how should the rights and obligations of current "withdrawers" and "receivers" be defined? A series of such questions awaits authoritative answers.
At the same time, "land withdrawal" will inevitably give rise to the issue of redistribution of contracted land, which also requires top-level design: who has the right to participate in redistribution? How should it be distributed? How can distribution both facilitate concentrated cultivation and achieve relative fairness?
Article 3 of the "Rural Land Contracting Law" provides that rural land contracting adopts the form of household contracting within rural collective economic organizations. For rural land such as barren hills, barren gullies, barren mounds and barren beaches that are not suitable for household contracting, contracting may be carried out by means such as bidding, auction and open consultation.
The reporter noted that in Liangping County's existing "land withdrawal" exploration, advantage is taken of the word "such as" in this legal provision to define farmers' withdrawn land obtained for compensation as land not suitable for household contracting (household contracting is unpaid - according to the reporter). In addition to transfer, the "withdrawn" land can also be "relay contracted" through other means. Whether this practice is lawful and compliant also needs to be clarified.
More safeguards need to be provided for farmers who "withdraw from land"
"Land withdrawal" also calls for more operational policies.
When the state expropriates agricultural land, there are relatively complete safeguard policies such as old-age insurance for land-expropriated farmers. But for farmers who "voluntarily withdraw from land," such policies are lacking. The current rural residents' old-age insurance is only around 100 yuan per month, insufficient to "shelter them from wind and rain." Therefore, it is necessary to establish safeguard mechanisms for farmers who "withdraw from land" in areas such as land, housing, social security, employment, education and medical care.
"As iron must be hard itself to forge," external "blood transfusion" cannot replace the function of self-"blood production." It is also necessary to help farmers who "withdraw from land" achieve stable employment through training and other means to relieve their worries, which requires the government to make arrangements in funding, teachers and mechanisms.
Judging from the pilot situation in Liangping County, after "land withdrawal," although the government strongly advocates developing moderate-scale family operations, most of the current operators who "take over" are engaged in industries with high investment, high returns and high added value.
Whether this model has universal value for solving the "three rural issues" is not yet known. After all, solving the problem of "feeding people" relies more on planting and other "narrowly defined agriculture," rather than "new-type agriculture" such as sightseeing, experiential and leisure agriculture. Referring to the experience of agriculturally developed countries, to form a more mature and competitive primary industry, the more ideal model may be "family farms" operated by "professional farmers" as households, supplemented by cooperatives providing pre-production, mid-production and post-production services.
Why are large grain growers and professional farmers absent when it comes to taking over the land "withdrawn" by farmers in Liangping County? This may be an accident caused by too small a sample, or it may be because they cannot come up with enough "compensation money."
China has decided to adjust and improve, starting in 2015, the three subsidy policies for improved crop varieties, direct subsidies to grain farmers and comprehensive subsidies for agricultural inputs, coordinating them to support moderate-scale grain operations. This work has selected 5 provinces for piloting. The support targets are moderate-scale production operators of major grain crops, with emphasis tilted toward new operating entities such as large grain growers, family farms, farmer cooperatives and agricultural socialized service organizations, embodying the principle that "whoever grows more grain gets priority support."
From this perspective, how the government can, through institutional adjustments, enable professional farmers and large grain growers to have the ability and willingness to participate in taking over land "withdrawn" by some farmers is worth deep thought.
The difficulty for the government in raising "turnover funds" (or "compensation funds") for "land withdrawal" may be the biggest bottleneck facing the exploration of "land withdrawal" reform. How to establish a funding pool, how to balance funding pressure, and how to establish a fiscal support system to provide funding support for the withdrawal of contracted land management rights through measures such as government cooperation with social capital, government purchase of services, guarantee interest subsidies, replacement of subsidies with awards, public assistance for private operation, and risk compensation - all these issues require more detailed rules.
If the exploration of "land withdrawal" is expanded to a larger scope, it will be very necessary to establish a market supply and demand information platform based on internet technology to provide services in market information collection and release, resource asset evaluation, transaction agency, financial and insurance services, and consultation and agency for laws, regulations and policies.