To provide a good bottom line guarantee for hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers

He Xuefeng

Hundreds of millions of farmers are the most vulnerable group in China. The state cannot guarantee that all farmers will get rich, but a system can be designed to provide bottom line protection for all farmers.

There has always been a gap between urban and rural areas in China. At the beginning of reform and opening up, the income gap between urban and rural residents narrowed for a time, but in the late 1980s, the gap between urban and rural residents widened again. Up to now, the income gap between urban and rural residents has reached 3.1 per capita, that is to say, the per capita income level in urban areas is more than three times that in rural areas.

One explanation for the widening gap between urban and rural areas is that since the reform and opening up, especially since the 1990s, rural people and property resources have continued to flow out of rural areas and into cities, and cities have developed rapidly, while rural areas are declining day by day, so the gap between urban and rural areas has further widened. The way is to allow people and property resources to return to the countryside. However, China is in the process of rapid urbanization, the outflow of people and property out of the countryside should be an inherent part of China's urbanization and modernization, how is it possible to move against the historical trend and let people and property return to the countryside?

Another countermeasure to reduce the gap between urban and rural areas is that only by allowing farmers to go to cities and urban capital to the countryside, and by invigorating rural land resources, farmers can sell their land rights and get the first bucket of gold to go to cities. at the same time, it also allows urban capital to obtain rural land resources for development. In this way, the efficiency of resource allocation has been improved because of the flow of resources. when farmers go to cities and capital go to the countryside, the gap between urban and rural areas has naturally narrowed.

The widening gap between urban and rural areas and the low income of farmers have obviously been the focus of national attention. Almost all the central agriculture-related documents focus on "increasing farmers' income and increasing agricultural efficiency". In order to increase farmers' income, the central authorities have come up with many countermeasures and measures, such as encouraging farmers to adjust their industrial structure, connecting the market through agricultural industrialization, promoting the cooperation mode between companies and farmers, and training farmers to become rich. develop the integration of production, supply and marketing, agriculture, industry and trade, develop rural tourism and leisure agriculture, and even give policy support to farmers as a way to get rich. Of course, it also includes raising the prices of agricultural products and purchasing grain at protective prices.

About after the global financial crisis in 2008, because the state invested 4 trillion yuan in infrastructure construction, there was a shortage of migrant workers in cities, the wages of migrant workers increased by double digits for many years, and the income gap between urban and rural residents narrowed slightly. It is obvious that the increase in farmers' income is not due to the increase in agricultural income, but to the increase in the income of migrant workers.

The problem now is that there are only two ways to increase farmers' income, one is the income of migrant workers to work in cities to do business, and the other is the income of farmers from agriculture. From the perspective of working and doing business, a unified and relatively perfect labor market has been formed throughout the country at present. Migrant workers look for employment opportunities and obtain income in this unified national labor market, which is their own business. Farmers have sufficient motivation and positivity to obtain high income opportunities. In this regard, what the state needs to do is to maintain market order, including resolutely cracking down on enterprises that owe wages to migrant workers maliciously. As for farmers going to cities to do business, the key is to have an equal business environment. Business can make money, and the market is risky. Farmers must do business at their own risk and, of course, enjoy all the gains and joys of success.

Farmers' income from agriculture is generally limited, because the proportion of agriculture in GDP is declining. At present, the proportion of agriculture in GDP is less than 10%, and it will be even lower, while the agricultural labor force is more than 200 million and the rural population is more than 600 million. With such a large agricultural population to share so little agricultural GDP, it is naturally difficult for farmers to get rich. In order to make farmers rich, policies promote farmers to adjust their industrial structure. as a result, what the government encourages farmers to grow will not make money. The policy also promotes the combination of capital to the countryside and farmers. It is said that farmers can not get rich because small farmers can not connect with the big market, and farmers can connect their small production to the market through companies and farmers. However, when the capital goes to the countryside, it is necessary to make money. When the agricultural GDP is limited, the capital will certainly share the agricultural GDP. The more capital goes to the countryside, the larger the agricultural GDP will be shared, and the smaller the agricultural GDP that more than 200 million farmers can share.

In order to support farmers to get rich by raising pigs, the state gives financial support to large-scale pig farms, especially ten thousand pig farms. As a result, free-range pig farming was the most important source of sideline income for farmers in the past. Now ten thousand pig farms supported by the government have almost monopolized the market, and it is extremely rare for farmers to raise pigs in bulk. As a result, farmers have lost their traditional sideline income of raising pigs. Raising ten thousand pigs is of course capital management, and even if it is run by farmers, this farmer is also a rich farmer separated from the peasants.

The same truth is shown in the support for large grain growers. The Ministry of Agriculture honors the country's major grain growers, who cultivate thousands of mu of land and produce thousands of tons of grain, contributing to the country's food security. However, the increase in the income of these large grain growers does not represent the increase in the income of ordinary farmers. At present, farmers are not unwilling to cultivate land, but there is no land to grow, because China's arable land is limited.

In other words, to examine the policy support and financial subsidy programs in the agricultural field, the biggest name is to increase farmers' income, but the real profit objects are rural capital or a very small number of rich farmers who are separated from farmers.

In recent years, there seems to be a good theory that farmers should be allowed to increase their property income. How to increase it? Is to let farmers' homestead, housing and land contractual management rights flow. It is also frequently reported that urban people are allowed to buy land and houses in rural areas so as to increase farmers' property income. this proposition holds that urban people go to the countryside, farmers go to cities, urban and rural areas are integrated, the efficiency of resource allocation is improved, and urban people have a place to go for leisure. Rural people have obtained property income. The question is whether farmers can live in a decent and comfortable way in the city. If they do not have a good life in the city, can they still come back to the countryside? Rural land rights are the basic security and social insurance for farmers. Can they be traded easily? Others argue that the operating area of farmers who want to earn a decent income from agriculture should not be less than 100 mu, and therefore, the central policy proposes to vigorously train new types of agricultural operators, with emphasis on family farms with a scale of between 100 and 200 mu. Family farms with 100,200 mu of land can become rich, but the problem is that more than 200 million farmers still have to earn income from the land.

At present, China implements a market economy, and the urban-rural dual system has basically eliminated the unfair content of discrimination against farmers, and is still in the process of cleaning up. The institutional obstacles for farmers to go to cities to look for opportunities to work and do business are also basically gone, and there are basically no institutional obstacles for farmers to engage in agriculture to get rich. Under such circumstances, farmers are far more enthusiastic about looking for opportunities to get rich than officials. Getting rich is everyone's instinct, and it does not need the state to provide policy guidance and financial support. What the state should do is to provide a fair and transparent market environment.

The fact that some farmers have become rich is the product of a combination of their efforts and luck. However, it is very difficult for most farmers to get rich in a short period of time, and some of them may not only fail to get rich, but also fall into the trap of poverty. At this time, the state needs to provide support and help to farmers who fall into the trap of poverty. The most important thing is to design a system to provide basic security and social insurance for farmers who may be in trouble. This basic security and social insurance are mandatory.

It is of course good that the peasants have made a fortune and their standard of living is far above the bottom line of basic security and social insurance. If the farmers are unlucky and fail to enter the city, such a bottom line is very important. In the current market economy, hundreds of millions of farmers are the most vulnerable group in China. It is impossible for the state to guarantee the wealth of all farmers, but a system can be designed to provide bottom line protection for all farmers. The current urban-rural dual system restricts the flow of capital to the countryside, which is to prevent urban surplus capital from occupying farmers' homestead, housing and land contract rights in rural areas at the present stage when most farmers cannot live in cities with dignity. These three rights are the retreat of failed farmers in cities, their basic security and social insurance, and the bottom line of farmers' survival. The author believes that they cannot be lost for a long time in the future.

(the writer is the director of the China Rural Governance Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology)