Oct 20, 2008
Farmers working in the fields of Wenxian County, Longnan City, in north-west gansu Province. There is hope the new reforms will boost rural incomes in China. -- PHOTO: XINHUA
740m farmers benefit from new policy
They have rights to pool their land for the first time since 1949
By Peh Shing Huei
BEIJING: China's top leaders finally announced yesterday the bold land reforms which its 740 million farmers have been waiting for - a week after observers feared it may have been torpedoed internally.
For the first time since the communists took over the country in 1949, farmers would have the formal rights to 'sub-contract, lease, exchange and swop their land use', reported the official Xinhua news agency.
But the land remains collectively owned and not privatised.
By allowing farmers to pool their land, it is expected to lead to greater economies of scale and boost productivity through modern machinery.
That, hopefully, would boost rural income, as the countryside has been left behind during China's economic boom in the last three decades.
Experts say farmers' bargaining power over their land is expected to increase substantially with the new policy, especially if land leases are increased. At present, farmers can lease land for a maximum term of 30 years.
And while yesterday's document did not specify the new tenure, it stated that land contracts would be 'unchanged over time' (chang jiu bu bian), a departure from previous policy statements which just said 'over the long term' (chang qi bu bian).
This could mean that land leases may likely be extended to over 30 years, driving up the land value significantly. Observers had speculated that it could be 70 years, as is the case with urban residential land.
'This is great for the farmers,' said rural sociologist Zhu Qizhen of China Agricultural University in Beijing. 'They can demand a higher price for their land if they want to sell. Now, local officials offer them a pittance when they take their land, since their leases are only for 30 years.'
If leases were indeed extended, farmer Wang Yuling, 55, from north-eastern Liaoning province, says he would be able to 'invest more in fertiliser and irrigation systems for the land, and produce more crops'.
Giving farmers more say over their land would hopefully guard against rampant land grabs by local officials, who seize plots for sale to property developers and factories.
Almost half of the tens of thousands of peasant protests every year is related to land grabs - a particularly alarming statistic for the Chinese leaders, acutely aware that peasant rebellions were usually the cause for regime change in imperial China.
The rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was itself backed by peasants and it has been careful in showing that it has not forgotten its roots.
Yesterday's document tries to assuage these fears, asserting that the transfers must be on the farmers' own accord. Food security of the nation must also not be compromised, with reforms not allowing farmland to be converted to other use.
Local authorities were urged to firmly safeguard the 120 million hectares minimum farmland baseline.
Even though the new policy was approved last Sunday by the CCP's decision-making central committee at a key political meeting, it ended without any mention of land transfers.
The omission led observers to wonder if there had been a disagreement within the party, with the traditionalists opposing bacause they feared that farmers could end up with no land and no jobs in the cities.
There were also concerns Beijing would be more cautious about reforms in the light of the financial crisis.
Prior to the plenum, President Hu Jintao made a public visit to an Anhui village, promising farmers the right to transfer their land. 'Land is the life of the people. It directly affects the country's social stability and that relates to political change,' said rural policy expert Hu Xingdou of the Beijing Institute of Technology.
shpeh@sph.com.sg
Additional reporting by Sim Chi Yin
740m farmers benefit from new policy
They have rights to pool their land for the first time since 1949
By Peh Shing Huei
BEIJING: China's top leaders finally announced yesterday the bold land reforms which its 740 million farmers have been waiting for - a week after observers feared it may have been torpedoed internally.
For the first time since the communists took over the country in 1949, farmers would have the formal rights to 'sub-contract, lease, exchange and swop their land use', reported the official Xinhua news agency.
But the land remains collectively owned and not privatised.
By allowing farmers to pool their land, it is expected to lead to greater economies of scale and boost productivity through modern machinery.
That, hopefully, would boost rural income, as the countryside has been left behind during China's economic boom in the last three decades.
Experts say farmers' bargaining power over their land is expected to increase substantially with the new policy, especially if land leases are increased. At present, farmers can lease land for a maximum term of 30 years.
And while yesterday's document did not specify the new tenure, it stated that land contracts would be 'unchanged over time' (chang jiu bu bian), a departure from previous policy statements which just said 'over the long term' (chang qi bu bian).
This could mean that land leases may likely be extended to over 30 years, driving up the land value significantly. Observers had speculated that it could be 70 years, as is the case with urban residential land.
'This is great for the farmers,' said rural sociologist Zhu Qizhen of China Agricultural University in Beijing. 'They can demand a higher price for their land if they want to sell. Now, local officials offer them a pittance when they take their land, since their leases are only for 30 years.'
If leases were indeed extended, farmer Wang Yuling, 55, from north-eastern Liaoning province, says he would be able to 'invest more in fertiliser and irrigation systems for the land, and produce more crops'.
Giving farmers more say over their land would hopefully guard against rampant land grabs by local officials, who seize plots for sale to property developers and factories.
Almost half of the tens of thousands of peasant protests every year is related to land grabs - a particularly alarming statistic for the Chinese leaders, acutely aware that peasant rebellions were usually the cause for regime change in imperial China.
The rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was itself backed by peasants and it has been careful in showing that it has not forgotten its roots.
Yesterday's document tries to assuage these fears, asserting that the transfers must be on the farmers' own accord. Food security of the nation must also not be compromised, with reforms not allowing farmland to be converted to other use.
Local authorities were urged to firmly safeguard the 120 million hectares minimum farmland baseline.
Even though the new policy was approved last Sunday by the CCP's decision-making central committee at a key political meeting, it ended without any mention of land transfers.
The omission led observers to wonder if there had been a disagreement within the party, with the traditionalists opposing bacause they feared that farmers could end up with no land and no jobs in the cities.
There were also concerns Beijing would be more cautious about reforms in the light of the financial crisis.
Prior to the plenum, President Hu Jintao made a public visit to an Anhui village, promising farmers the right to transfer their land. 'Land is the life of the people. It directly affects the country's social stability and that relates to political change,' said rural policy expert Hu Xingdou of the Beijing Institute of Technology.
shpeh@sph.com.sg
Additional reporting by Sim Chi Yin
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