The rural capital market is quiet; how can it be activated?
As a pilot county for mortgaged loans backed by the management rights of contracted rural land nationwide, Wucheng County in Shandong Province completed 241 transactions within one year, involving more than 4,400 farming households, standardizing the transfer of 25,000 mu of land, and accumulating more than 26 million yuan in financing for new agricultural business entities, effectively alleviating the difficulty that ordinary farmers and new agricultural business entities face in obtaining loans due to a lack of collateral and in accessing financing.
Recently, a reporter conducted an on-site interview. Zhang Lei, head of Wucheng County, told the reporter: "Carrying out mortgaged loans backed by the management rights of contracted rural land provides useful exploration for deepening rural financial reform and innovation, 'awakening' dormant rural resources, funds and assets, increasing capital input in agricultural production, and steadily advancing reform of the rural land system."
Building a platform to achieve integration of land resources in property rights transactions
Wang Zhijun, Party branch secretary of Zhaozhuang Village in the Economic Development Zone of Wucheng County, never imagined that his "sudden inspiration" would increase the village collective's income by nearly 300,000 yuan.
In September last year, Wang Zhijun went to the county agricultural economics bureau to discuss how to contract out 120 mu of cultivated land held by the Zhaozhuang Village collective. The suggestion of Wang Hongsheng, director of the Wucheng County Agricultural Economics Bureau, was to publish information on the platform and contract it out through public bidding. In less than one month, a "miracle" appeared: land that was originally intended to be transferred at 300 yuan per mu per year was finally sold at a price of 1,100 yuan.
This platform is the Wucheng County Rural Comprehensive Property Rights Trading Center.
With the deepening of reform of the rural property rights system, Wucheng County began carrying out rural land confirmation, registration and certification work throughout the county in 2013, and it has now been fully completed. Confirmation, registration and certification of rural land contracting and management rights legally clarified farmers' possession of land contracting and management rights, laid a solid foundation for land transfer, activated the rural capital market, and injected new momentum into the development of modern agriculture.
Next, Wucheng County took the lead in Dezhou City in establishing a rural comprehensive property rights trading center to provide venues and other services for the transfer and transaction of various rural property rights, perform property rights transaction authentication functions, and provide supporting services such as transaction planning. It also sorted out 10 tradable categories, including rural land contracting and management rights and the use rights of four types of wasteland of rural collective economic organizations, and established a "six unifications" operating model featuring unified trading rules, unified information release, and unified transaction authentication, forming a three-level networked trading service system comprising the county comprehensive property rights trading center, township and street (development zone) comprehensive property rights trading service stations, and village comprehensive property rights trading service points. This achieved full coverage of the county's rural comprehensive property rights trading market and ensured that farmers can receive rural property rights transaction information without leaving home.
Mortgaging management rights effectively solves the financing difficulties of new business entities
A grain drying tower with a daily processing capacity of 100 tons stands in the courtyard, next to it is a 1,300 sq m storage warehouse, and the wheat on 1,800 mu of transferred land is about to be harvested... On May 22, at the Zhiyuan Grain and Cotton Planting Cooperative in Wucheng County, Niu Wenzhi, chairman of the cooperative, looked at his "assets" with great joy. Before that, he had still been worrying about the source of funds for grain drying and storage and for expanding the scale of transferred land.
"I didn't expect that land contracting and management rights have the same value as a property ownership certificate. Using land contracting and management rights as collateral, I obtained a loan of 2.6 million yuan, which solved my urgent need." Niu Wenzhi said. The Zhiyuan Grain and Cotton Planting Cooperative in Wucheng County was established in 2008. Although its business developed smoothly, Niu Wenzhi's idea of expanding the scale of operation was blocked by funding problems. In 2013, the county agricultural economics bureau and the county rural credit cooperative union jointly issued Dezhou's first "Measures for Mortgaged Loans Backed by Rural Land Contracting and Management Rights." Under these measures, contractors and operators with grain and cotton planting area of no less than 100 mu, special cash crop planting area of no less than 50 mu, and breeding area of no less than 20 mu could obtain loans of 30% to 50% of the appraised and recognized value of the land contracting and management rights they provided.
On this basis, Niu Wenzhi took the transfer contract for 680 mu of land and submitted an application for a land mortgage loan to the local credit union. After evaluation and review by the county agricultural economics bureau, price bureau, credit union and others, the cooperative's 680 mu of land was valued at 8 million yuan. Holding the authentication certificate issued by the county agricultural economics bureau and the Wucheng County rural land contracting and management rights certificate, Old Niu obtained a two-year loan of 2.6 million yuan in only two weeks.
How can the enthusiasm of financial institutions such as rural credit unions for making loans be mobilized and the risks of financial institutions reduced? Wucheng County established a model of "management rights mortgage + intermediary guarantee + risk fund compensation." The county finance department set up a 10 million yuan risk compensation fund for mortgaged loans to provide certain compensation for losses incurred by banks due to carrying out mortgaged loans backed by contracted land management rights, and carefully screened and approved guarantee companies with qualifications, strength and high credibility to provide guarantees in accordance with the law, enhancing financial institutions' enthusiasm for issuing such loans. Up to now, financial institutions have been coordinated to provide more than 26 million yuan in financing for farmers' cooperatives and family farms using land management rights as collateral, effectively alleviating the difficulty that ordinary farmers and new agricultural business entities face in obtaining loans due to a lack of collateral and in accessing financing.