Good news for family farms: Hunan to focus on supporting 10,000 in 2014

“From tomorrow on, care about grain and vegetables.” Just as the poem says, owning a “family farm” was once the dream of many people. The concept of the “family farm” appeared for the first time in last year's Central Document No. 1. In February 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Family Farms,” requiring the implementation of relevant support policies for family farms. This content was also written into Hunan Provincial Party Committee Document No. 1. This year, Hunan will focus on supporting 10,000 family farms.

On March 26, the Information Office of the Provincial Government held a press conference on Provincial Party Committee Document No. 1. Zhong Zhenghong, deputy director of the Rural Work Department of the Provincial Party Committee, deputy director of the Provincial Government's Rural Work Office, and press spokesperson, introduced the relevant contents of Provincial Party Committee Document No. 1. This year, five major main tasks will be advanced in the work on agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, including effectively carrying out grain production to ensure the market supply of major agricultural products; upholding and improving the basic rural management system and innovating the agricultural management system; further strengthening infrastructure construction; innovating the science and technology extension system and raising the level of agricultural science and technology; innovating the rural investment and financing system; and innovating the rural governance mechanism.

Cultivate new agricultural management entities such as family farms

Around Changsha, quite a few family farms have already appeared, with family members working together in large-scale, intensive, and commercial agricultural production and operation, for example, making enzymes on a large scale from fresh vegetables. Similar family farms will receive relevant support. This year, Provincial Party Committee Document No. 1 proposes to give prominence to implementing the “three hundred-thousand-ten-thousand projects.”

The “three hundred-thousand-ten-thousand projects” include: the “hundred enterprises, thousand cooperatives, ten thousand households” modern agriculture development project, the “hundred districts, thousand parks, ten thousand people” science and technology revitalizing agriculture project, and the “hundred cities, thousand towns, ten thousand villages” new rural construction project. This year, the task of environmental improvement will be completed in 4,000 villages, and 300 beautiful and livable villages will be built. In addition, starting this year, 100 “beautiful villages” and 10 “beautiful townships” will be built as key projects each year.

This year, efforts will focus on the “three reforms”: stabilizing and improving the rural land contractual management system, actively cultivating new agricultural management entities, and innovating the rural investment and financing system. In “actively cultivating new agricultural management entities,” the aim is to accelerate the building of a three-dimensional and composite modern agricultural management system based on household family management, linked by cooperation and association, and supported by socialized services. Cultivate specialized large households, family farms, farmers' cooperatives, agricultural enterprises, and other new agricultural management entities. Carry out the creation of demonstration family farms. Encourage the development of farmers' cooperative unions, and allow fiscal project funds to be invested directly in eligible cooperatives.

This year, select some counties to carry out pilot projects for overall advancement of confirmation and certification

“In some places, land contractual relations are not stable enough, the land transfer mechanism is not sound or standardized, and the protection of farmers' property rights is not strong enough,” Zhong Zhenghong said, introducing the current situation of rural land contractual management rights in Hunan. He said that deepening the reform of the rural land system mainly includes deepening the reform of the rural land contractual management right system, steadily advancing the reform of collective commercial land, actively exploring and steadily advancing the reform of the rural confirmation system, and steadily advancing the reform of the land expropriation system.

This year, Hunan Provincial Party Committee Document No. 1 proposes to stabilize and improve the rural land contractual management system. According to this reform requirement, efforts will focus on the confirmation and certification of rural land contractual management rights. Zhong Zhenghong introduced that, according to the unified deployment of the central government, this work must be completed within 5 years. This year is the second year of confirmation and certification, and this work will be fully completed within the remaining 4 years after this year. This year, Hunan will select representative counties from among type-one, type-two, and type-three counties to carry out pilot projects for overall advancement.

The term “family farm” is new, but in fact it has been developing in China for many years

“Although the term family farm is relatively new, in fact it has already developed in China for a period.” Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Rural Management System and Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, said on February 27 at a press conference of the Ministry of Agriculture that starting in the 1980s and 1990s, some skilled farmers engaged in specialized and large-scale agricultural production through contracting and transferring land, and already possessed the basic characteristics of family farms. Since entering the new century, Ningbo in Zhejiang, Songjiang in Shanghai, Yanbian in Jilin, and other places have actively explored the cultivation of family farms. According to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture last year, by the end of 2012, there were 877,000 family farms nationwide that met the statistical standards, with an operated cultivated land area of 176 million mu and an average operating scale of 200.2 mu; among them, family farms engaged in planting and breeding reached 861,000, accounting for 98.2% of the total number of family farms.

Zhang Hongyu introduced that family farms mainly have three major characteristics. First, family operation. Family farms mainly rely on family members for production, and even if there are hired workers, they only play an auxiliary role. Second, specialized farming. Family farms specialize in agricultural production, mainly carrying out specialized production in planting and breeding, with a relatively high level of management, strong demonstration and driving capacity, and relatively strong capacity for producing commercial agricultural products. Third, moderate scale. Because family farms have a relatively large scale of planting and breeding, they can enable operators to obtain a relatively decent income comparable to that of local urban residents.

Support measures for “family farms” mainly cover five aspects

Zhang Hongyu, director of the Department of Rural Economic System and Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, said in an interview with the media on February 27 that at the present stage, the cultivation of family farm operators should mainly be based on contracted farmers, and the focus of policy support should be on large-scale operating farmers emerging from among contracted farmers, rather than encouraging urban residents to go to the countryside to farm. The specific support measures for family farms mainly include five aspects:

First, establish a registration and recognition system for family farms. Jiangsu, Shandong, and other provinces have issued measures for industrial and commercial registration of family farms, and Zhejiang, Anhui, and other provinces have issued measures for recognizing demonstration family farms;

Second, guide rural land to flow to family farms. Since 2007, Songjiang District in Shanghai has clearly leased land uniformly consolidated by the collective to family farms for operation. Ningbo in Zhejiang provides appropriate financial subsidies for land transferred by family farms;

Third, tilt agriculture-related fiscal subsidies toward family farms. According to statistics, in 2012, funds supporting the development of family farms across the country reached 635 million yuan;

Fourth, strengthen financial and insurance services. Various places have strengthened financial and insurance services for family farms by establishing agricultural guarantee companies, issuing loan subsidies, setting up risk prevention funds, and expanding the scope of loan collateral;

Fifth, improve the level of agricultural socialized services. Promote the healthy development of family farms by providing diversified, multi-level, and all-round socialized services.