Farmers to benefit from new rules
Print Edition
CHINA has relaxed the rules governing farmland to allow farmers to transfer their land rights to help promote more efficient, large-scale units, amid an exodus of farm workers to the cities.
Authorities have recommended separating various rights to rural land, which they say would improve land circulation, increase farmers’ incomes, and contribute to the development of modern agriculture.
Agriculture Minister Han Changfu told a news conference yesterday that the separation of rural land ownership rights, contracted rights and operating rights is a key reform step. “This helps guide the orderly transfer of land operating rights and lay a system foundation for appropriate-scale agricultural operation development and modern agriculture,” he said.
The step will help improve land and labor efficiency in the farm sector, he said, but farmers would not be forced to transfer their land rights.
Farmland in China is collectively owned and farmers only have the right to contract and use the land.
Many migrant workers have leased out their land to those who stay in the countryside or to commercial entities. Over 30 percent of rural land has already been leased to others to operate, said Han.
Chinese farmers still cannot sell their land rights freely and the lack of clear rights makes many farmers vulnerable to land grabs by local administrations for development.
A program to issue certificates confirming rights to land has covered 60 percent of farmland.
Han said the guidelines will also better protect the rights of those who lease and operate the land from farmers, helping to encourage more investment in more efficient agriculture.
The priority for the world’s most populous country is to ensure enough land and rural labor to maintain food security.
Land reform and household registration are two key issues if China is to succeed in its plan to get 100 million migrants to settle in cities by 2020.
China aims for 60 percent of the population of almost 1.4 billion to be living in cities by 2020, turning millions of rural dwellers into consumers who could be a driving force for the world’s second-largest economy.
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