How farmers can become the main actors in agricultural and rural development
Specialized cooperatives can provide a sound foundation for rural governance by letting farmers become the main actors in agricultural and rural development, organizing themselves for effective cooperation
Recently, while inspecting the Jiucheng Rice Planting Specialized Cooperative in Fuyuan City, Heilongjiang Province, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that farmers' specialized cooperatives are an effective form of organization for driving up farmers' incomes and developing modern agriculture; the Northeast region has the conditions to develop large-scale operations, and agricultural cooperatives are the direction of development. Advanced experience should be summarized and promoted, and the cooperatives should be run even better. Highlighting the directional significance of specialized cooperatives in light of the geographical and historical characteristics of the Northeast region is both a measure tailored to local conditions and a reflection of overall strategic vision.
The Northeast region has a relatively large per capita share of arable land, and agricultural mechanized farming there enjoys favorable geographical conditions and a solid technical foundation. After the founding of New China, the Northeast region, as the "eldest son" of the republic, accumulated considerable experience in collective organization and collective cooperation; these are the reasons why farmers' specialized cooperatives in the Northeast region have performed relatively well.
Of course, other development models currently exist as well, including industrial and commercial enterprises "sending capital to the countryside" to operate farmland on a large scale. Many reports and commentaries have already pointed out that it is increasingly common for industrial and commercial capital going to the countryside to use farmland for non-agricultural operations, which is not conducive to safeguarding national food security. But the more important problem is that under the model of "capital going to the countryside" to operate farmland, the bonds among local farmers in their own villages are further reduced, turning them into more atomized market-oriented individuals and bringing new challenges to rural governance. This is an important change in today's development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers."
Nationwide, the influence of the model of "capital going to the countryside" to operate farmland is steadily increasing, and some of it also borrows the "shell" of agricultural cooperatives. Changes in the countryside itself are an important foundation for the formation of this trend. At present, the number of farmers who work in cities and towns year-round across the country is nearly 300 million, which means that a considerable portion of farmland needs to enter the land transfer market. Rural land is divided into ownership rights, contract rights and operating rights, and the institutional innovation of realizing the separation and parallel operation of collective ownership, farmers' contract rights and land operating rights has a profound basis in reality. The contractors of some land have already left their hometowns, and its operation often does not adopt the form of cooperative organizations of local farmers; the "stage" for capital going to the countryside has thus expanded day by day, and more and more farmers are being marginalized in the process of agricultural production. These two processes are cause and effect for each other and continuously reinforce each other.
At present, the focus of the "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" issue can be divided into two different parts: first, whether the system of rural land and its operation can be effectively maintained; second, whether farmers can still achieve sound self-organization in the process of agricultural production and provide a sound foundation for rural governance.
How the basic farmland system develops is the fundamental question. When General Secretary Xi chaired a symposium on rural reform in Xiaogang Village on April 25, he stressed that under the new situation, in deepening rural reform, the main thread is still handling the relationship between farmers and land. The biggest policy is that the basic rural operating system must be upheld and improved, collective ownership of rural land must be upheld, the foundational status of household operation must be upheld, and stable land contract relationships must be upheld. Recently, when interpreting this speech, officials including Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group and director of its office, stressed that rural reform must not lose the "soul" of collective ownership of rural land. At present, one-third of the land nationwide has already been transferred, and of the 230 million rural households with contracted land nationwide, 66 million households have transferred land to a greater or lesser extent. Since there had previously been phenomena in which the transfer of land operating rights was distorted into changes in ownership, this emphasis undoubtedly has targeted relevance and practical significance.
After implementing ownership, stabilizing contract rights and loosening operating rights, what kind of life and work status local farmers will have is a more complex question. Whether local farmers organize themselves through the form of cooperatives or transfer land operating rights to enterprises has a key impact on the internal life of rural areas. If in one or more villages there is an effectively operating specialized cooperative in which most residents participate, it means these villages can "twist into one rope" and form a relatively "united" atmosphere, rural governance has a foundation, and life and work are relatively vigorous. If in one or more villages most villagers transfer land operating rights to a certain company, such a situation may not necessarily take shape, and it depends on what role the villagers and the village collective play in it. Not all enterprise operations are "cold"; for example, some land transfer trust models can integrate the entrustment of ordinary farmers, the involvement of specialized cooperatives, the establishment of government trust platforms, and the operation of service enterprises.
No matter which form of operation brings villagers together, it is difficult to avoid a core question, namely the role of the village collective and its Party organization in this process. Whether the village collective and its Party organization withdraw from the process of rural economic development or actively intervene in this process as the core organizer of the villagers is the truly core question in the development of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" after the separation of use rights and operating rights. In this sense, General Secretary Xi's emphasis on the directional significance of agricultural specialized cooperatives reminds people that efforts should be devoted to letting farmers become the main actors in agricultural and rural development, and moreover main actors capable of organizing themselves for effective cooperation.