GUARANTEE THE RIGHTS TO OWN, CONTRACT AND UTILIZE RURAL LAND

GUARANTEE THE RIGHTS TO OWN, CONTRACT AND UTILIZE RURAL LAND*

April 25, 2016

Deeper rural reform is the key to overcoming challenges and problems facing agriculture and rural areas and the best way to motivate hundreds of millions of farmers. The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to deeper rural reform. At the 18th CPC National Congress and the third, fourth, and fifth plenary sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee, decisions were made on advancing rural reform and development. 

Since the 18th National Congress in 2012, I have presided over 23 meetings of the Leading Group for Further Reform under the CPC Central Committee, of which eight were directly related to rural reform. Some major pilot projects involving deeper rural reform have been launched all around the country. Party committees and governments at all levels must implement the decisions and plans of the Central Committee, take solid measures to advance rural reform, and give fresh impetus to rural development, so that people in rural areas will see greater returns.

Our rural reform began with adjusting the relationship between farmers and land. In the new era, this reform remains focused on this relationship. Our fundamental policy is to consolidate and improve the basic rural system. We absolutely cannot vacillate on this policy. This is not an empty slogan, but a solid policy goal – to uphold the collective ownership of rural land, maintain the fundamental status of family-based operations, and continue land contracting practices. Rural land contracting practices must remain stable and unchanged for a long time to come. We must guarantee farmers’ rights to contract and utilize rural land by introducing a registration system for these rights. Solid steps must be taken to allay any concerns.

At the Central Conference on Rural Work in 2013, I pointed out that to improve the basic rural system, we should respect the desire of farmers to retain their land contracting right and transfer the land use right. To this end, we should keep the land contracting right separate from the land use right, and see that the two separate rights are exercised in parallel.

The separation of these two rights is a significant innovation in rural reform. While upholding the collective ownership of rural land, it guarantees farmers’ right to contract land, allows a flexible approach to the land use right, and promotes the development of modern agriculture. This flexible approach to the land use right, and orderly provisions for transferring this right, need policy support. We should therefore devise guidelines for transferring the land use right, for pooling this right from multiple holders, and for large-scale agricultural operations. The progress of this reform must keep pace with the rate of urbanization, the scale of rural labor migration, improvements in agricultural technologies and production methods, and the development of commercialized agricultural services.

“Trends are formed over time, and achievements are made through continuous effort.” Given its importance, we should handle the reform of the rural land system with great prudence. On the one hand, we need to recognize that large-scale agricultural operations are crucial to agricultural modernization, which cannot be achieved by way of scattered and inefficient farming operations. On the other hand, we need to be aware that the transformation from scattered farming operations to a model of large-scale operations is an ongoing process, and that such change takes time and will not be possible without the proper conditions. This is why we should not rush into such a change. There are many issues involved, and we must address them with a historical perspective. We should be wary of tackling issues which are not yet clear to us at the moment, and we should make no decisions in haste.

I have emphasized on a number of occasions that the existing practices of rural land contracting should remain unchanged, and farmers’ land use right should not be disrupted. If farmers lose their land, but find it hard to settle in towns or cities, this could very easily lead to bigger problems. We have learned the lesson the hard way in the past. This issue needs time to address. We should not expect to understand it overnight. We must be patient. We should respect the will of farmers and protect their rights and interests, and let them decide for themselves and make their own choices rather than decide for them on their behalf. We can provide guidance and assistance, but we should not issue compulsory orders, take sweeping actions, or implement one-size-fits-all policies. No matter what reform measures we take, we must make sure that the collective ownership of rural land is not undermined, the area of arable land is not reduced, grain production capacity is not weakened, and the interests of farmers are not jeopardized.

The Leading Group for Further Reform under the CPC Central Committee has met several times to consider issues relating to further rural reform, and we have introduced a series of reform plans. The following are our priorities at this stage: 

First, we should focus on certifying household-based ownership of rural collective assets and on reforming the joint stock cooperative system. We should develop more forms of joint stock cooperation, and endow farmers with more rights to collective assets and more property rights. 

Second, we should move faster to establish a new agricultural operation system and coordinate the development of family-run, collective, cooperative and enterprise-run agricultural operations. We need to encourage large-scale agricultural operations that are efficient, organized, commercialized and industrialized.

Third, we should advance comprehensive reform of supply and marketing cooperatives while serving farmers’ interests, keeping government functions separate from those of public institutions, and keeping cooperatives separate from their affiliated businesses. In this way, we can build a system of supply and marketing cooperatives that safeguards the interests of farmers with more farmer-oriented services and functions, so that these cooperatives will be able to operate more efficiently as market entities. 

Fourth, we should improve the system for supporting and protecting agriculture. We should improve the pricing mechanism of agricultural products, better regulate agricultural markets, and fine-tune agricultural subsidies to expedite the growth of an all-inclusive, clearly defined, focused, well-coordinated and user-friendly system of agricultural support and protection. 

Fifth, we should accelerate reform of the household registration system so that rural migrant workers who live in urban areas and have secure employment can be registered as urban residents. We should also ensure that urban and rural workers enjoy equal access to employment opportunities and receive equal pay for equal work. 

Sixth, we should improve mechanisms and institutions that facilitate the integrated development of urban and rural areas, equal distribution of factors of production, and balanced allocation of public resources in urban and rural areas. These measures will achieve integrated urban and rural development by creating new relationships between industry and agriculture and between urban and rural areas in which industry promotes agriculture, urban areas support rural development, and agriculture and industry complement each other.

* Part of the speech at a meeting on rural reform held in Xiaogang Village, Fengyang County,  Anhui Province.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)