300 million farmers who have nothing to do with land need to pay attention to the land system and have a long-term plan.

We must remember that we have 300 million peasants who have nothing to do with the land. This is a terrible number. Last year's latest figures showed that the total number of landless farmers now stands at 112m, adding to the 200m born after 1994 who were not allocated land to begin with, bringing the total to about 300m by 2020. No matter how the land system is reformed, it has little to do with the interests of these 300 million people. What will these 300 million people rely on in the future? The possible way is to establish a social assistance mechanism, establish fair social values, and our social systems should be well considered in advance. China's land system has to carry out long-term planning to this day.

How to protect cultivated land concerns the sustainable development of the Chinese nation

Should China's farmland be protected? How can protection be effective? The first question is of course yes, so the second question must be answered well.

If there was still some controversy about farmland protection ten years ago, today this controversy no longer exists and society has reached a consensus. Although the red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land we originally proposed seems to have achieved good results now, with cultivated land expanded to 2.03 billion mu, an increase of 200 million mu, we cannot simply be optimistic about the increase in total amount. The problem of structure is worth studying.

When the Ministry of Land and Resources data was released in 2013, I was also one of the interpretation experts. I raised structural issues at the time: the data was surveyed from 2009 and released in 2013. There are great changes in the middle data of Heilongjiang Province, with an increase of 64 million mu in one province; 22.4 million mu in Jilin Province; and 29 million mu in Inner Mongolia. These three provinces alone increased by 116 million mu. We should know that these three provinces are all purely northern regions, and the newly added cultivated land is still in relatively backward areas such as rural areas. There are also some newly added cultivated land with a slope of more than 25 degrees, cultivated land along rivers and rivers, and 50 million mu that can hardly be cultivated because of pollution. The yield of these cultivated lands is not high, and 2.14 mu of land in the north is equivalent to one mu in the south. Therefore, if "north plus south minus", it is very likely that the total amount of 2 billion mu of cultivated land may not be as high as the original output of 1.8 billion mu.

Last year I wrote an article in which Professor Cai introduced the concepts of space and time on the basis of his research on the quantity and quality of cultivated land. From time to time, some land is facing degradation, desertification in some areas is very serious, and is still expanding, which is not conducive to our future protection. On the other hand, spatially, the center of gravity of cultivated land is constantly moving northward, and the direct consequence of northward movement is the change of grain structure, because the most suitable grain types are different in different regions. There is a huge crisis here. In 1998, the north-south boundary of our cultivated land was in the south west of Huaihe River in Qinling Mountains, moved northward to the south of Kaifeng in 2013, further moved northward to the west of Luoyang in 2005, moved northward to Fengqiu in Anyang in 2010, and moved northward to Handan in Hebei Province at the end of last year. However, in Jilin Province, which is close to the Sanjiang Plain in the northeast, there is a phenomenon that farmland is abandoned, and there is no land to cultivate.

Therefore, it is not a question of whether or not to protect cultivated land when the total amount is 2 billion mu, but a question of how to protect it. There is much learning to be done here. Whether it is done well or not has a bearing on the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

The earth is the origin of all things, and the earth is the source of all production. We do not seem to have a high degree of awareness of this as the basis for survival and development.

The land system must be planned in the long run

Why can't China protect its land? The problem lies in the fact that we have long attached importance to the economy and neglected society. Urbanization is the theme of our economic development today. Last year's latest data showed that urban construction land was about 525 million mu, and the urbanization population accounted for 54.7% last year.

However, at the same time of urbanization, we have not stopped in rural areas, or even more seriously. Rural construction land is four times that of urbanization land. With the expansion of rural construction land, 2.6 million farmers no longer own land out of 13 million people who move into cities every year. Last year's latest data show that the total number of landless farmers has reached 112 million. In addition, 200 million people born after 1994 have not been allocated land. Therefore, by 2020, there will be about 300 million farmers who have nothing to do with land. No matter how the land is reformed, these 300 million farmers will not have much interest.

What will these 300 million people rely on in the future? A possible approach is to establish social assistance mechanisms and equitable social values. Why are cities getting bigger and villages getting smaller? It's because we value economy over society. Only economic development is pursued, and cities are obviously conducive to economic development. As a result, the land area of cities has been expanding. Another major incentive for urban expansion is land finance. In 2010, China's land finance in the land transfer fees reached 2.7 trillion yuan, when the media have reported that this is too much. The government felt too much and started controlling. However, as we all know, control is to control, the main line of economic development remains unchanged, the general trend of urbanization remains unchanged, and this number is still rising. Land transfer fees hit a record high last year: 4.36 trillion yuan. Why not? Because in the process of urbanization, cultivated land is the most likely to be expropriated, because basically there is no demolition problem involved. The role of some local governments is also a bit ambiguous. Our government is both a coach, a referee and an athlete. The Government can plan and approve. As a result, in some places, land can be collected at a price of tens of thousands of yuan per mu and then sold at a price of millions.

We must remember that we have 300 million peasants who have nothing to do with the land. This is a terrible number. By about 2025, we will have not only 350 million migrant workers, but also 300 million elderly people. The elderly problem also involves the elderly in rural areas. By 2020, China's rural aging rate will reach 20%, and we don't have to wait until 2025 to have 300 million elderly people.

In this way, how to solve the problem of old-age care and how to solve the problem of migrant workers should be well considered in advance by our social system.

Today, China's land system must carry out long-term planning. Last year, the Central Committee entrusted the Chinese Academy of Sciences with the overall design plan for the reform of China's land system. Including the reform of five systems, three of which have been promoted this year. It mainly includes the system of cultivated land, the system of collective land entering the market, and whether there are property rights in rural collective land, which are prepared to give farmers more property rights, because there is no property income without assets. In addition, the problems of grass shortage and land shortage in rural areas are also involved, and we look forward to being well implemented.

Finally, the adjustment of the land system is inseparable from the research, investigation and policy recommendations of high-end think tanks. Nowadays, it focuses on economic development, and the majors of geography and natural resources do not pay enough attention to it, while economics is sometimes easy to be short-sighted. Therefore, as researchers, we have a lot of work to do, including making more voices.