Farmers prepared to reap benefits from land reform
employing 150 workers.
The program has already proved beneficial to some rural residents. Wang Jiayi, 61, a Dawangfu resident, is one of the main breadwinners for his family of five. He lives with his wife and a grandson in the village, while his son and daughter-inlaw are migrant workers who live and work in a nearby city.
Several years ago, Wang leased the rights to 0.065 hectares to a cooperative, which specializes in greenhouse vegetables for about 600 yuan per year, and earns an extra 1,000 yuan a month tending broccoli, peppers and other vegetables for the cooperative. He and his wife also work 0.2 hectares of land independently and can earn as much as 3,600 yuan a year by cultivating wheat and rice.
“More farmers will benefit from the rural land reform and their incomes and standard of living will improve hugely,” said Qin Fu, director of the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
“The decision on rural land reform is an attempt by the central government to protect farmers’ property rights and raise their incomes,” he said.
Qin explained that although the annual growth rate of rural residents’ incomes has overtaken that of urban residents in recent years, the low base from which they started means that the increase hasn’t narrowed the income gap between the two groups. Instead, that gap is continuing to grow.
“When farming doesn’t provide farmers with a higher income, the money they can make from their property becomes crucial to their survival. The decision to allow landrights transfers is an attempt to increase farmers’ incomes by allowing the sale, lease and demutualization of rural land,” said Qin. He added that moves are underway to establish the identities of all land rights holders nationwide, a task that should be completed by 2015.
He warned that the reform should be carried out gradually, because the relationship between existing rural land and property rights is complex and it will take time to iron out the discrepancies between them. Contact the writers at Wangzhenghua@chinadaily.com.cn and hena@chinadaiy.com.cn