How can farmers' rights be maintained and developed after hukou reform?

Recently, Beijing officially issued the "Implementation Opinions on Further Advancing the Reform of the Household Registration System," becoming the 31st province (municipality, autonomous region) to issue household registration system reform. The opinions clearly state the need to abolish the distinction between agricultural household registration and non-agricultural household registration, and uniformly register them as "resident household registration." With the establishment of a unified urban-rural resident household registration system across various regions, the urban-rural dual household registration system will become history. This is an important milestone in China's integrated urban-rural development and an important achievement of social civilization and progress.

After the reform of the unified urban-rural household registration system, the most practical question is: how will we identify farmers? How can farmers' rights be maintained and developed? This requires further clarification and answers in light of reality.

First, we must distinguish between status and occupation. The current advancement of household registration system reform, abolishing the division between agricultural household registration and non-agricultural household registration, means abolishing farmers' household registration status, not abolishing agriculture as an occupation. As long as agriculture as an industry exists, there will be farmers engaged in agriculture as an occupation. After the household registration system reform, our country will not be without farmers, but there will no longer be agricultural household registration. As an occupation, farmers' rights and interests must be effectively and genuinely safeguarded.

Second, we must clearly distinguish three different forms of farmers. After the household registration system reform, there will in fact be three different forms of farmers in our country: First, farmers who, as members of collective economic organizations, hold land contract management rights, who can be called land-contracting farmers; these are the original farmers who obtained the qualification for rural land contract management rights. Second, farmers who engage in agricultural production and operation by transferring contracted land; they mainly transfer land from land-contracting farmers to carry out agricultural production and operation activities. In recent years, some people with non-agricultural household registration have joined the ranks of agricultural production through land transfer, becoming new farmers. Third, personnel who provide socialized services for the pre-production, mid-production, and post-production links of agricultural production. According to research, the agricultural population of the United States accounts for 2% of the national population, while the population in service industries serving agriculture accounts for as high as 17-20% of the national population, with an average of 8-10 people serving each farmer. As China's agricultural modernization advances and the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries progresses, the number of practitioners providing various socialized services for agriculture will continue to increase. These three types of personnel engaged in agricultural production and services are new types of professional farmer groups in different forms in the process of China's agricultural modernization.

Third, we must accelerate the realization of equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas. Abolishing the distinction between agricultural household registration and non-agricultural household registration, and uniformly registering them as "resident household registration," cannot be accomplished simply by making some textual changes in the household registration book; rather, it is necessary to fill the shortcomings in basic public services such as farmers' social security, and realize the integration and equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas. In keeping with establishing a unified urban-rural resident household registration system, governments at all levels need to accelerate the establishment of a unified urban-rural social security and other basic public service systems, and realize as soon as possible the fair and equal enjoyment of basic public services by urban and rural residents. At present, the focus is on improving the public finance system and the social security system, and making the improvement of rural residents' access to social security and other basic public services an important part of optimizing the structure of fiscal expenditure.

Fourth, we must comprehensively deepen the reform of the rural collective property rights system. Household registration system reform only abolishes farmers' household registration status; it does not abolish farmers' property rights. But governments at all levels must adapt to the new situation created by the establishment of a unified urban-rural resident household registration system, and comprehensively advance and deepen the reform of the rural collective property rights system. In household registration reform, it is necessary both to prevent some places from using the name of unifying urban and rural household registration to deprive farmers of property rights they should enjoy, such as land contract management rights, homestead use rights, and the right to distribute collective income, and to prevent non-members of collective economic organizations from taking the opportunity to plunder or participate in carving up collective property rights. We should draw on the basic experience of economically developed regions such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin in exploring and carrying out reform of the rural collective property rights system, and strengthen guidance, deployment, and arrangements at the national level for deepening reform of the rural collective property rights system nationwide. At present and for some time to come, property rights such as land contract rights, homestead use rights, and the right to distribute collective income can only be enjoyed by members of collective economic organizations. Establishing a unified urban-rural resident household registration system should not affect the various collective property rights enjoyed by farmers as members of collective economic organizations, but household registration system reform will force the comprehensive advancement of reform of the rural collective property rights system.

Fifth, we must establish a new population statistics system and policies for strengthening agriculture, benefiting farmers, and enriching farmers. After establishing a unified urban-rural resident household registration system, the original statistics system should also advance with the times. The new population statistics system should focus on three aspects. First, it should adhere to taking the residence and life of the permanent resident population as the basic basis for statistics on urban population and rural population; the population living in rural areas is not necessarily all farmers. Second, it should strengthen statistics on the agricultural working population, treat agricultural workers as an important indicator for supporting the development of modern agriculture, and at the same time strengthen statistical work on personnel engaged in agricultural services. Third, it should innovate statistical work on members or shareholders of collective economic organizations. Statisticizing members or shareholders of rural collective economic organizations is just as important as statisticizing agricultural workers. In particular, as reform of the rural collective property rights system advances, the status of the broad masses of farmers as members of collective economic organizations will be further clarified and defined, and their rights and obligations as members or shareholders of collective economic organizations will become increasingly prominent. At the same time, policies for strengthening agriculture, benefiting farmers, and enriching farmers need corresponding adjustment and improvement, and precise support for the "three rural issues" must be implemented.