Why rural reform must focus on systematicity
Comprehensively deepening rural reform requires cultivating systematic thinking, fully respecting farmers' wishes and safeguarding farmers' rights and interests, and properly handling the relationships between farmers and land, between farmers and the government, and between farmers and their communities.
General Secretary Xi Jinping recently chaired a symposium on rural reform in Xiaogang Village, Fengyang County, Anhui Province, and delivered an important speech, fully demonstrating the will and determination of the Party Central Committee to further advance rural reform, development and stability.
How can rural reform, development and stability be promoted under the new situation? A reporter interviewed Ye Xingqing, Director of the Rural Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, on this topic.
Reporter: In deepening rural reform under the new situation, the main thread remains properly handling the relationship between farmers and land. How can this be handled well so as to invigorate rural factors of production?
Ye Xingqing: Over the past more than 30 years, tremendous changes have taken place in China's agriculture and rural areas. The most fundamental reason is that institutional and mechanism-related obstacles constraining the development of productive forces have been reformed, especially the relationship between farmers and land, freeing farmers from the "big pot" system of production teams and granting farmers long-term and guaranteed land contractual management rights. With the deepening of industrialization and urbanization, a large amount of agricultural labor has shifted to non-agricultural industries, and farmers have continuously differentiated, posing new requirements for further properly handling the relationship between farmers and land.
Under the new situation, it is necessary to follow the approach of "separation of three rights" - ownership rights, contracting rights and management rights - to advance reform of the systems for agricultural land such as cultivated land, forest land and grassland, clarify the forms of existence and specific powers and functions of collective land ownership; reasonably empower contracting rights, do a good job in registration, explore forms of realizing contracting rights such as "confirming shares and profits but not land" in places where conditions permit, and explore market-based exit mechanisms for contracting rights; and clarify as soon as possible the rights attributes and specific powers and functions of third-party management rights, so as to provide institutional safeguards for the development of new types of business entities.
To handle the relationship between farmers and collective operational construction land, the main approach is to include the proceeds generated by such land in collective proceeds and safeguard collective members' rights to democratic management and income distribution. To handle the relationship between farmers and homestead land, the powers and functions of farmers' usufructuary rights over homestead land acquired according to law should be gradually expanded, with "integration of housing and land" confirmation, registration and certification as the reform foundation, and with "housing first, land second; land follows housing" as the logic of empowerment, exploring effective ways for mortgaging, guaranteeing and transferring farmers' housing property rights, and exploring voluntary and compensated exit mechanisms for homestead land use rights.
Reporter: At present, the benefits of agricultural subsidies are diminishing and domestic and international agricultural product prices are inverted. How can the relationship between farmers and the government be handled well to invigorate rural market vitality?
Ye Xingqing: Since the mid-1980s, with fruits and aquatic products as breakthrough points, China's market-oriented reform of the agricultural product circulation system has advanced step by step. By the new round of grain reform in 2004, the market-oriented reform of China's agricultural production and agricultural product circulation was basically completed, and the market began to play a decisive role in the allocation of agricultural resources. Thereafter, the state gradually implemented the minimum purchase price and temporary storage system for major agricultural products, gradually established various subsidy systems, and formed a new type of "triangular relationship" among farmers, the market and the state. This promoted agricultural development and increased farmers' incomes, and created another "golden period" for agricultural and rural development.
As the marginal effects of state support policies diminish, market distortions intensify, and the level of inversion between domestic and international agricultural product prices rises, this "triangular" relationship urgently needs reform. The pilot reform of target price subsidies for soybeans and cotton launched in 2014 opened the curtain on this reform. Next, it is necessary to continue advancing reform of the agricultural product price formation mechanism and the agricultural product market regulation system, adopt the method of "differentiated policies by variety and gradual advancement," follow the approach of "separating price from subsidy and market-based pricing," and gradually expand the areas in which the market plays a decisive role. It is necessary to advance reform of the agricultural subsidy system, reduce the degree to which subsidies distort the allocation of agricultural resources, and improve the effectiveness of subsidy policies.
Whether it is merging direct subsidies to grain-growing farmers, improved seed subsidies and comprehensive agricultural input subsidies into agricultural support and protection subsidies, or establishing an agricultural credit guarantee system, or developing inclusive rural finance and improving the agricultural insurance system, all should reflect the policy orientation of focusing on improving agricultural quality, efficiency and competitiveness, tilting toward new types of business entities, and promoting resource-saving and environmentally friendly production methods, so as to lead the transformation of agricultural development methods through the transformation of agricultural policy.
Reporter: As conditions in various respects change, rural social governance faces new challenges. Under the new situation, how should the relationship between farmers and their communities be handled well?
Ye Xingqing: Under the new situation, the relationship between farmers and village communities faces reshaping. Strengthening and innovating social governance should take safeguarding and improving people's livelihoods as the priority direction and establish the concepts of systematic governance, governance according to law, comprehensive governance and source-based governance. It is necessary to explore pluralistic co-governance of rural communities, follow the overall approach of Party and government leadership, farmer principal status and social coordination, make good use of consultation forms such as villagers' discussion meetings and villagers' councils, promote the culture of rural sages, and use nostalgia and attachment to hometown as bonds to attract and unite people from all walks of life to support hometown development.
It is necessary to explore a reasonable radius for villagers' self-governance. In accordance with new changes in self-governance functions, and with the goal of improving self-governance results, pilot projects for villagers' self-governance should be carried out with villagers' groups (natural villages) and new rural communities as basic units. It is necessary to explore methods for separately establishing villagers' self-governance organizations and village collective economic organizations, carry out experiments on "separation of politics and economy," and strip the village "two committees" of their functions in the operation and management of collective assets. It is necessary to advance the building of safe townships and safe villages, carry out special rectification of prominent public security problems, and guide the broad masses of farmers to abide by the law and use the law.
Reporter: In deepening rural reform, how can farmers' wishes be respected and farmers' rights and interests be safeguarded?
Ye Xingqing: Respecting farmers' wishes means handing the right of choice to farmers, letting farmers choose rather than choosing on their behalf, and not resorting to coercive orders, not launching campaigns, and not imposing uniformity. Safeguarding farmers' rights and interests means ensuring that state investment does not decrease in the reform of the agricultural product price formation mechanism and storage system and the agricultural subsidy system, safeguarding farmers' land contracting rights, homestead land use rights and rights to collective income distribution during the process of farmers moving to cities, and safeguarding farmers' rights to know and to participate in decision-making on rural public affairs.
This has practical significance for advancing supply-side structural reform in agriculture. To advance supply-side structural reform in agriculture, it is true that the state needs to introduce guiding policies and demonstration projects, but what is more crucial is to give play to farmers' principal role and stimulate their initiative and enthusiasm; it is true that farmers need to bear the costs and pains of transformation, but it is necessary to avoid a cliff-like decline in farmers' interests in the short term, especially to solve the problem of safeguarding farmers' interests in the current main corn-producing areas.