Family Farm in China: the neglected Truth and Logic

Family farm is a new type of management body in China's agricultural production and management in recent years. It takes peasant households as the basic production unit, increases the input of technology, capital and other factors, and implements agricultural specialized production and large-scale operation. We will improve the agricultural output rate and commodity rate of agricultural products, and improve the level of agricultural production mechanization and agricultural management intensification.

In 2013, the first document of the Central Committee proposed to encourage and support the transfer of contracted land to large professional households, family farms and farmers' cooperatives, which has become one of the highlights of agricultural development in recent years.

1 Family farm is the main way to promote agricultural development

In foreign countries, especially in some European and American countries, the phenomenon of family as a unit engaged in agricultural production and management is very common, its development has been more than a hundred years, family farm has become one of the main ways to promote agricultural development. The family farms there generally have vast land, and the matching production and management model is becoming more and more mature, showing the characteristics of high degree of mechanization, large-scale, intensive and so on.

From the existence form of family farms, there are large, medium and small family farms, large family farms in the United States and Canada, medium-sized family farms in France and other European countries, and small family farms in Japan and Taiwan.

In the United States, big farms, which account for 25% of the total number of farms, produce 85% of the country's agricultural products, and that proportion is still rising. In all parts of Germany, family farms are a common form of agriculture and form the physical basis of German agriculture. "large" family farms operate more than 100 hectares of land, 29300 in the country, accounting for 8.29 percent of the total number of agricultural enterprises in Germany; "medium-sized" family farms operate in 30 hectares, 104000 in the country, accounting for 29.44 percent of the total; and "small" family farms operate in 230 hectares, with 218500 in the country, accounting for 61.94 percent of the total.

Throughout the development of these foreign family farms, we can find the following experiences for reference: the establishment of land lease system and the relative concentration of land, the separation of farmland ownership and use right, the scale of operation and the diversification of organization, the specialization of production and management, the high-tech and mechanization of agricultural production, the strong support of the government to agriculture, and so on.

Some of these experiences are the same as China's policies, while others, such as high-tech, mechanization, and specialization, still have some gaps, and we need to continue to strengthen development efforts in the next step.

While seeing these experiences, we also need to see the fundamental gap, which is the difference in national conditions. Foreign family farms have the characteristics of region and population, and rural areas and farms often have a small population and a large number of arable land, especially after long-term urbanization development, the population is greatly reduced and the degree of land concentration is high. there are a considerable number of farms whose cultivated land is handed down from ancestors and does not need land transfer. This is different from the actual situation of large population and little land in our country, especially when the land of family farms needs to be transferred to other farmers, which is similar to the upgraded version of large farmers in operation.

(2) behind the phenomenon of farmers refusing land transfer

So how to develop family farms in China?

We believe that in order to develop a good family farm, under the condition of marketization, we need to respect the enthusiasm of the two subjects, that is, the farmers and farmers. First look at the typical rational practices of farmers. With the farmers' going out to work and the widespread use of agricultural materials, the planting methods of farmers have changed greatly. Farmers around the country use their ingenuity to create planting methods suitable for their families.

My hometown is in the eastern plain of Henan Province, the land is three crops in two years. Mainly grow winter wheat and autumn corn, soybeans and other crops.

In November of the previous year, winter wheat was planted in the fields, and there was basically no need to manage it until the Spring Festival. After the Spring Festival, take advantage of the rain, sprinkle chemical fertilizer, and then the men and women in the family go out to work.

Wheat grows vigorously in spring and has experienced Qingming Festival, Grain Rain and other solar terms. When the wheat blossoms, it is most prone to diseases and insect pests. By this time, they have not been able to pay certain agricultural medicine and labor fees to migrant workers in advance. Pay attention to integrity in the countryside, take other people's money, generally still have to hit the pesticide in place, so that insect pests are not serious.

When the wheat is harvested before and after June 1, they will return home from other places to harvest wheat and grow corn and soybeans. for more than 20 days, they can also take care of the elderly and children at home, and at the same time it can be regarded as leisure.

After planting corn or soybeans, then hit the herbicide again, when the corn comes out, there is no grass, do not have to work in the field to weed.

Next, there are two ways to deal with agricultural affairs, one is that the whole family goes out and gives the labor fees for chemical fertilizers and pesticides to the people in the village to do, and the other is that male labor goes out to work and women work at home, mainly applying chemical fertilizers and medicines at home. Wait until around the National Day, the autumn harvest, male labor back home, harvest together, and then cultivated to plant winter wheat.

In this way, one mu of land can earn more than a thousand yuan a year, and 2000 yuan in a good year. For the round trip fare, it can be counted as the fare to visit the family. As for time, it can be counted as leisure. Both farming and migrant work can be regarded as migratory bird-like work.

In many reports, it is often seen that no one transfers land and needs to do work from one household to another. in fact, it also reflects the rational side of farmers, thinking that it is more cost-effective to grow their own.

(3) the maximization of cultivated land income is the key.

The guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture on promoting the development of family farms (Nongjingfa (2014) No. 1) points out that "family farms are the main body of a new type of agricultural operation, with peasant family members as the main labor force. Agricultural operating income is mainly seen from the above cases, most farmers regard land as a" living field "and employment" insurance field ", so they prefer extensive operation and abandonment rather than transfer out. At the same time, it should be noted that circulation now requires long-term contracts, and the expected rise in land lease prices is also the practical aspect of their consideration. If the land is transferred to the farm, about 1000 yuan per mu, or even less, it is not as cost-effective to grow it yourself, so most farmers are not willing to rent it.

The source of income, the use of household contracted land or transferred land to engage in large-scale, intensive and commercialized agricultural production, and believes that family farms are in line with the stage of economic and social development and are the upgraded version of household contract management. it has become an effective force to lead moderate scale operation and develop modern agriculture.

At present, compared with traditional small farmers, family farms in China have the characteristics of "two high and two low", and have the development rationality of standardization and moderate scale of land. The "two highs" means that the average educational level of farmers is higher, and the average asset level of farms is higher. The "two low" means that the average age of farmers is relatively low, and the proportion of long-term employees participating in production and management is relatively low, mainly in the form of husband and wife plus short-term employees.

At the same time, the ideal land size of the family farm is about 600 mu on average. 25% of farmers believe that the reason for not expanding the scale of land is that "the scale of land is large enough". These two results show that family farmers have a more rational understanding and grasp of the appropriateness of business scale in their long-term production practice. In addition, 95.38% of the farms signed formal land transfer contracts, reflecting the characteristics of the standardized development of family farms.

In our view, the scale and existence and development of family farms in rural areas must be a win-win outcome, otherwise farmers and farmers will not let family farms survive for a long time. In theory, large-scale agricultural operation is a feasible choice to get out of this dilemma, but it involves the distribution of land rights and interests, which leads to the general floodgate of the whole body. In this way, the maximization of cultivated land income becomes the key to the family farm.

According to the report "can Family Farm ease the contradiction of farming" published by People's Daily on March 20, 2013, Li Jun, a 36-year-old from Hexi Village, Langxi County, has reached nearly 700mu of transferred land since he established his family farm in 2007. "the net income per mu is about 400 yuan, earning nearly 300000 yuan a year." After excluding the transfer fee and production cost, the net income per mu is only 400 yuan. If the scale is not large, the profit margin is pitifully small.

Feng Qiang, director of the Songjiang District Committee of Agriculture in Shanghai, told reporters that with the general operation of 100,000,200 mu of rice fields and agricultural subsidies, a family farm can earn at least nearly 100000 yuan, which is almost double that of ordinary migrant workers. They concluded that "farming is more profitable than working."

However, not only look at the good-looking results, but also look at the amount of capital paid by farmers and the ratio of benefits to costs. Does it take so much capital to work? How many farmers can afford this capital is a realistic question. In addition, the distribution of profits and benefits, the transfer of land should not be as large as their own income, otherwise, family farmers will not do business at a loss.