Three major problems faced by capital going to the countryside generally do not grow grain

He Xuefeng, director of the China Rural Governance Research Center and doctoral supervisor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, said that the phenomenon that "rural capital has the strength to compete for land but not the ability to farm land" noticed by a reporter from China Youth Daily during interviews in Xingtai, Handan and other places is not uncommon in the country.

According to reports, the China Rural Governance Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, led by he Xuefeng, has an average of 10 researchers conducting research in rural areas every day, covering all parts of the country.

According to a national survey conducted by himself and his colleagues, he Xuefeng told China Youth Daily: after the transfer of land, the proportion of non-grain conversion by industrial and commercial enterprises is astonishingly high; successful examples of capital going to the countryside for farming are rare; in places suitable for farming, they do not see land abandoned, but what they see is rural capital and farmers competing for land.

"although the land transferred from capital to the countryside currently accounts for about 1x10 of the land transferred across the country, the momentum is particularly bad." In this regard, he Xuefeng is not without worry, "if this continues, in another five years, I think it will be a big deal."

Capital generally does not grow grain when going to the countryside.

A reporter from China Youth Daily noted that with regard to capital going to the countryside, some experts have expressed support and encouragement for industrial and commercial capital to invest in industries suitable for industrialization, scale, and intensification in the upper and lower reaches of the agricultural industrial chain. At the same time, he also expressed concern about "industrial and commercial capital entering the planting and cultivation links closely related to land elements", which will accelerate the non-grain and non-agricultural conversion of land, and eventually disrupt the process of industrialization and urbanization.

Statistics show that in recent years, with the increasingly obvious trend of industrial and commercial capital entering China's agriculture, some rural capital is investing in industries suitable for industrialization, scale and intensification in the upper and lower reaches of the agricultural industry chain. is entering a large number of planting and breeding links closely related to land elements. This has caused concern among experts.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, as of June 2014, the national land transfer area reached 380 million mu, of which 38.647 million mu flowed into industrial and commercial enterprises, accounting for 10%. The inflow area shows an upward trend year by year. In 2012, the land area transferred to enterprises increased by 34% over the previous year, and in 2013 it increased by 40% over the previous year.

According to recent reports by local media in Liaoning, 1266 industrial and commercial enterprises in Liaoning Province have participated in land transfer, covering an area of 1.4437 million mu, accounting for 12.9% of the province's total land transfer area, involving 161000 contracted farmers.

In Henan, another major agricultural province, there are also recent media reports that behind the appearance of a steady increase in land circulation, the internal circulation structure is also quietly adjusted.

According to the statistics of the Agriculture Department of Henan Province, the land transfer in the province began to accelerate in 2009. At present, the total circulation area is 33.93 million mu, accounting for 34.8% of the land contracted by households. Monitoring from 2011 to 2013 shows that the total area of circulation has an average annual growth rate of 5%, while the annual growth rate of the area of rural households has declined, and the growth rate of new main bodies such as enterprises, cooperatives and major grain growers has always been maintained at more than 40%.

During his research in a place in central China, he Xuefeng found that the local land transfer was promoted to set up a land property rights exchange, but there was almost no transferred land for growing grain. According to a survey conducted by the China Rural Governance Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the proportion of non-grain conversion of industrial and commercial enterprises after the transfer of land is astonishingly high.

Business success cases are rare.

Why does the rural capital not grow grain? He Xuefeng's answer is: there is no advantage for capital to go to the countryside to grow grain.

In he Xuefeng's view, the first reason why capital has no advantage in growing grain in the countryside is that the land rent paid to farmers by its large-scale operation is generally much higher than that of farmers' spontaneous land transfer: "when capital goes to the countryside to farm land, it is necessary to rent arable land from farmers, and the rented arable land must be suitable for large-scale operation. When renting a series of arable land, the rent must be based on the rent demanded by farmers who do not want the land to be transferred out of the serial arable land. "

According to his research, nationwide, due to the large amount of capital going to the countryside to farm and push up land rents, "as high as 1000 yuan / mu / year, or even higher."

Although there are differences in the planting structure of agricultural grain fields between the south and the north: Rice is planted in the south, rice and wheat in the central region, and wheat and corn in the north. "but under the two-season planting model, the annual net income of one mu of land is about 1000 yuan." "this is when the harvest is good-there is no irresponsible human labor or production reduction caused by natural disasters," he stressed. " Under the current situation that the land rent is too high, it is difficult to make a profit for the rural capital to grow grain.

He Xuefeng believes that the second reason why there is no advantage for capital to go to the countryside to grow grain is that capital goes to the countryside for large-scale operation, either hiring workers or improving the degree of mechanization.

Higher mechanization means higher fixed capital investment, and employees have to pay wages. The cycle of agricultural production is long, field management is very fragmented, can not be standardized and difficult to measure, and the cost of hiring management is extremely high. Farmers farm, grow their own fields, a strong sense of responsibility, the use of spare time can complete most of the field management. Capital hires them to carry out field management, but they have to pay wages according to the market price. "therefore, when farmers can make money by growing grain, there is no way that capital can grow grain without losing money."

There is no comparative advantage in growing grain. Is rural capital good at growing cash crops with comparative advantages? He Xuefeng's answer is also no.

The prices of staple agricultural products such as grain are relatively stable, and the state has a protective policy on grain prices. The low risk of growing grain matches the low income-it is difficult for farmers to make a lot of money, but generally they can't lose money.

"there is a big difference between cash crops and staple agricultural products such as food crops, and the high risks of growing cash crops are also matched with their possible high returns." There are a variety of cash crops, but the relationship between supply and demand in the market is also unstable. When the price is high, the cash crop can make a lot of money, and when the price is low, the cash crop will lose a lot of money.

"since the capital going to the countryside may have greater ability to connect with the market than the large growers, large-scale entry into the field of cash crop cultivation may be able to bring down the large households that used to operate cash crops." However, the competition between capital and capital leads to excess production of cash crops, and when the price law of supply and demand plays a role, it will lead to the loss of capital to the countryside.

In sharp contrast to the enthusiasm of capital from all over the country to go to the countryside one after another to carry out large-scale operation, in the survey conducted by he Xuefeng and relevant researchers, almost all the rural capital engaged in large-scale operation and grain cultivation have lost money. While his research institute went to various rural areas to investigate, there were few successful cases of capital going to the countryside, especially those enterprises directly engaged in the farming industry.

The contradiction between capital farmers "fighting for land" intensifies.

On April 16, he Xuefeng gave a lecture entitled "Agricultural Modernization for whom" at China Agricultural University. "the original topic was' can migrant workers go back to the countryside', which was considered too 'local', so I talked about the theme of 'foreign'." But in his view, in fact, the theme of the two topics is the same-"both should emphasize the importance of small-scale peasant economy."

He Xuefeng believes that when capital from all over the country goes to the countryside to cultivate fields, local governments should pay enough attention to this: not only should they not be "encouraged", but also "restrictions" should be set to protect the small-scale peasant economy.

He explained that at present, China has more than 200 million farmers, more than 200 million agricultural labor force, more than 600 million rural population, and 260 million migrant workers who go to cities to work and do business. At present, the national condition of our country is that China still has 900 million farmers who need to rely on rural areas and agriculture. It can only be a slow process for a large number of farmers to go to the city. "that is to say, agriculture is very important to more than 200 million farmers and 900 million farmers at present and for a long time to come." In his view, at present and even for a long time in the future, what the countryside is facing is not the problem of unmanned farming, but the problem of people without land.

In the research, he Xuefeng found that there are two kinds of abandonment at present. One is in the high and cold mountain areas, "these mountains lack irrigation and the soil is poor, so they are not suitable for growing crops, but should return farmland to forests." Another situation is that due to the disintegration of the original collective irrigation facilities, part of the land has become a dead corner of irrigation, "ten kinds of nine do not harvest", "this kind of land farmers are not willing to cultivate, let alone the capital to go to the countryside to grow."

He Xuefeng stressed that from what he has seen throughout the country, apart from these two situations, there are farmers on all the land suitable for farming.

In many places, as capital goes to the countryside to farm, the contradiction between capital and farmers is intensifying. "at present, cities have accumulated a huge amount of excess capital, and once they are free to go to the countryside, it will be like a scourge, and the consequences will be unimaginable."