How many years is the term of rural land contracting? Read this article to understand
The Land Administration Law divides land into agricultural land, construction land and unused land according to its use, and agricultural land includes cultivated land, forest land, grassland, farmland water conservancy land and aquaculture water surfaces, among others. Based on the actual situation of household contracting of rural land in China, provisions are made on the contract terms and upper limits for rural land of different uses.
Contract term for cultivated land
Cultivated land refers to land used for growing crops, including irrigated paddy fields, rainfed fields (also called dryland paddy fields), irrigated land, dry land and vegetable plots. According to statistics, China's total cultivated land area is about 1.4 billion mu, a little more than 1 mu per person.
The length of the land contract term should take into account the actual situation in China's rural areas. The provision that the contract term for cultivated land is 30 years conforms to the provisions of relevant laws and the current actual practices in China's rural areas, and is also consistent with the provisions of national policies.
Contract term for grassland and forest land
At present, China's contracted grassland area is 208 million hectares, accounting for 76.9% of the usable grassland area. In practice, some places implement a 50-year contract term for grassland.
China's forestry land area is 3.85 billion mu, of which collectively owned forest land accounts for about 59% and state-owned forest land accounts for about 41%. The contract term for forest land is generally 30 to 50 years.
For the contract term of grassland and forest land, China's laws do not clearly provide for it. The Land Administration Law stipulates that land owned collectively by farmers shall be contracted and operated by members of the collective economic organization for crop farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery production. The term of land contracting and operation is 30 years.
In view of the particularity of forest land, many places appropriately extend the contract term for forest land. During the legislative process, many places and departments suggested that, compared with cultivated land, the contract term for forest land should be appropriately longer, and it would be appropriate to provide for 30 to 70 years. For some special tree species, a 70-year contract term is still insufficient and should be longer.
The contract term provided for in this Law is a statutory term
In view of the fact that the second round of contracting has ended in the vast majority of places across the country, and that in some places the second round of extended contracting has a term longer than the contract term provided for in this Law, in order to stabilize the existing rural land contracting relationships, prevent the implementation of this Law from triggering re-contracting of land and causing unnecessary confusion, and better safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the contracting party, this Law makes special provision for this situation in Article 62: “Where contracting has already been carried out in accordance with the relevant national provisions on rural land contracting before this Law takes effect, including where the contract term is longer than that provided for in this Law, it shall remain valid after this Law takes effect, and the land shall not be re-contracted.”
In accordance with the provisions of this Law, it shall be determined through consultation by both parties based on the actual situation. For example, in practice, the contract term for ordinary fish ponds is generally 1 to 3 years. For contracting “four wastelands” for treatment and development, the relevant national policies provide that the contract term may reach a maximum of 50 years.