The fragmentation of farmland in China and its Governance against Land fragmentation

The establishment of the household contract responsibility system has stimulated farmers' enthusiasm and enthusiasm for production, but it has also brought hidden worries about the fragmentation of farmland. How to treat the fragmentation of agricultural land? How to reverse the trend of farmland fragmentation? And how to solve the dilemma caused by the fragmentation of agricultural land? This paper puts forward some views and suggestions on the basis of combing the existing research.

I. fragmentation of agricultural land: connotation, cause and function

(1) the connotation of the fragmentation of agricultural land

In the academic circle, the understanding of the connotation of farmland fragmentation is gradually comprehensive and complicated. Wang Xingwan et al. (2008) believe that land fragmentation refers to "farmers own multiple pieces of land, most of which are small and not adjacent to each other." Sun Yan et al (2010) believe that the above definition based on the perspective of land property rights ignores the influence of land use types and planting structure. Based on the meso-scale perspective, they define land fragmentation as: "affected by man-made or natural conditions, as well as different types of land use, a certain type of land use is difficult to be integrated, centralized and large-scale management. Land use is in a state of flower arrangement, dispersion and disorder.

Zhao Kai (2011) believes that the above understanding of the connotation of land fragmentation is carried out from the attribute of land use structure, which is not comprehensive enough. Based on previous studies, he proposed that the connotation of land fragmentation should include two parts: the attribute of land fragmentation and the causes of land fragmentation. According to this, land fragmentation is defined as: "due to the influence of China's natural factors, economic factors, social factors, institutional and policy factors, as a result, farmers in the process of agricultural production show a relatively large number of pieces of land, the area of a single plot is small and different, the degree of fertility is not consistent, the family distance from the land and other characteristics of the form of farmers to manage land." This definition comprehensively summarizes the connotation of farmland fragmentation.

(2) the causes of the fragmentation of farmland

Natural conditions such as topography, geomorphology, geology and hydrology play a fundamental and structural role in the formation of land fragmentation. Therefore, the degree of land fragmentation in plains, hills and mountainous areas seems to be on the rise. However, Sun Yan et al. (2010) Meso-scale study denied this view. They found that: "the degree of land fragmentation in low mountain areas is the lowest, followed by plain areas, while the degree of fragmentation in hilly areas is the highest" [2]. However, they included woodland in the analysis. It can be seen that the relevant conclusions are very different from different angles.

Chen Peiyong et al (2011) systematically combed the research on the causes of land fragmentation at home and abroad, "the causes of land fragmentation are divided into two aspects: natural conditions and human factors". Among them, human factors include "institutional factors" (including the disintegration of the property inheritance system and the common property system with the equal sharing system as the core content), "market transaction mechanism" and "land scarcity and population pressure". On the one hand, the fragmentation of agricultural land reflects the relationship between plots, on the other hand, it reflects the relationship between plots and people, and more importantly, it also reflects the relationship between people.

Zhou Yingtang et al (2008) pointed out that the form of land use is the result of multi-game, whether it is "fragmentation" or "anti-fragmentation", it has a certain rationality. Among them, the most fundamental factor is productivity, but it will also be affected by the traditional system, economic factors, human-land relationship and many other factors. This understanding is helpful to study the problem of land fragmentation objectively.

(3) the function of farmland fragmentation

The academic research on the function of farmland fragmentation is very rich. Tan Shuhao et al. (2003) based on the investigation and analysis of Guangxi, Jiangxi and Hubei, it is concluded that the current land fragmentation leads to the loss of efficiency in the allocation of rural labor and land resources. However, Li Gongkui et al. (2006) based on the field research and analysis of the underdeveloped areas of Jiangsu Province, found that "under the specific conditions of large population and little land and a large number of agricultural surplus labor", land fragmentation makes the mode of agricultural production and production types scattered, diversified and flexible, which is conducive to small farmers' families to share agricultural risks, make full use of labor resources, and maximize farmers' household income.

However, Tian Chuanhao et al. (2005) based on the empirical analysis of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces, found that even if the risk diversification and alleviating labor shortage are taken into account, the fragmentation of cultivated land also exceeds the needs of farmers, resulting in the loss of production efficiency. Wang Xiuqing et al. (2002) also found that land fragmentation increased the material cost of local farmers using machinery and reduced the labor productivity, land productivity and cost value rate of grain production. Zhang Yin Junjie et al. (2008) found that land fragmentation has a significant negative effect on economies of scale and food output but has a certain positive effect on the income of farmers.

However, Hou Fangan (2009) found that the fragmentation of cultivated land reflected by the average area of cultivated land did not have a serious negative impact on agricultural mechanization by using national statistical data. He gave a reasonable explanation to this conclusion from two angles: the current stage of rural development in China and the diversity of agricultural machinery functions. Li Weiyi et al (2010) also found that small scale does not restrict the cross-regional operation of agricultural machinery. This point of view is in tension with the above conclusions of Tian Chuanhao and Wang Xiuqing.

Gui Hua (2010) based on a long-term and nationwide rural field survey, it is found that the current scattered and fragmented rural land is very inconvenient for farmers at home to engage in agricultural production, and sometimes farmers compete for water conservancy and other public goods resources. often need to pay the price of sweat, tears and even bloodshed. He Xuefeng et al (2003) also discovered the farmland system innovation-"zoning contract" carried out by farmers and grass-roots organizations in order to overcome the predicament of water conservancy, in order to overcome the problems caused by land fragmentation.

Based on the specific survey of different regions or different levels of interpretation and analysis, there are great differences in the research results. It shows that there has been a relatively large regional differentiation in rural China, and it is this regional differentiation that complicates scholars' evaluation of land fragmentation. Therefore, for how to determine and evaluate land fragmentation and its impact, we not only need more empirical materials and perspectives, but also prevent the "hierarchical fallacy" in methodology.

Second, two ideas of "anti-fragmentation of agricultural land".

In 2002, the Land contract Law was promulgated, and the relevant provisions greatly limited the power of rural collective organizations to adjust land, avoiding the tendency of continuous fragmentation of agricultural land as a result of collective adjustment, which has a certain progressive significance. However, before the promulgation of the law, farmers had already graded the land by weight and weight, and divided the land evenly according to the population. Therefore, when the law is promulgated, the fragmentation of land has become an established fact. The promulgation of the Land contract Law solidifies this fragmented form.

The fragmentation of rural land is not only reasonable but also unreasonable. The goal of anti-land fragmentation is to reduce irrationality as much as possible on the premise of acknowledging rationality. Land circulation and land renovation are the two main ideas at present.

(1) Land transfer-- using market mechanism to counter land fragmentation

In China, land transfer mainly refers to the transfer of land use rights. The Land contract Law clearly stipulates that "the right to contracted management of land obtained through household contracts may be subcontracted, leased, exchanged, transferred or transferred by other means in accordance with the law." land circulation should adhere to the basic principle of "equal consultation, voluntary and paid", and the form of land ownership and agricultural use shall not be changed.

1. The mode of land transfer

In reality, there are mainly the following modes of land transfer: ① rural land exchange. That is, the behavior of farmers exchanging their contracted management rights. ② rents out rural land. That is, farmers lease the right to the use of the land to others and ask for rent according to the lease contract. ③ Rural Land Stock Cooperation (Jiang Provincial third et al., 2003). That is, farmers transform their land contractual management rights into equity, which is no longer directly related to the specific land, but participate in the operation of collective economic organizations through shares. ④ rural land rent shares. That is, farmers lease their land to others, and then share the rent to participate in land management. This model can ensure that the right of contracted management of land is always in the hands of farmers themselves. ⑤ rural land subcontract. That is, farmers transfer their land use rights to collective economic organizations, cooperatives, enterprises, private individuals and the government, and then the latter uniformly transfer the land out.

In the above-mentioned various modes of land transfer, village groups often play a very important role. Under the basic national conditions of our country with a large population and little land, the land per household is no more than 10 mu, and the land is fragmented and scattered, which determines that the supply and demand docking of the land transfer market is faced with greater transaction costs. The demand side of land is often difficult to find the supply preferences and characteristics of land from thousands of households, while farmers under information asymmetry often lack trust in the subjects from the outside world of the village. At this time, the village group collective organization has a very important function to reduce the market discovery price, and plays a role in helping farmers to review information to increase the credit of the land demand side. Therefore, under normal circumstances, farmers first concentrate the land to the village group collective, and then establish a circulation relationship between the village group collective and the land demand side, distribute the land (subcontract), or operate on their own (cooperatives, etc.).

two。 Land transfer contributes to anti-land fragmentation.

To a certain extent, land circulation contributes to "anti-land fragmentation" (Yang Dan et al., 2011). Although the private exchange of land by farmers does not change the total planting area of farmers, it reduces the land owned by farmers, thus increasing the area of land per unit. The forms of land rental, shareholding and rent shareholding are the transfer of land by some farmers, which objectively reduces the average land area of labor, and may also promote the merger of plots, so as to increase the scale of unit plots. As the intermediary of land transfer, the government, collective economic organizations, exchanges or individuals can comprehensively reflect and capture the information of land supply and demand, which is helpful to accelerate the speed of land flow and promote the scale.

3. Two Dilemma of Land Circulation

However, in reality, there are also double dilemmas in land transfer.

(1) first of all, the existence of nail households leads to the lack of land transfer. The existence of nail households may make land transfer face the "tragedy of anti-Commons" (Koch, 2009). As the Land contract Law solidifies the land property rights of farmers, the land transfer may face very high transaction costs. Those farmers who want to transfer the land may be unable to transfer the land because of the existence of those farmers who do not want to transfer the land, resulting in the shortage of land transfer.

If agricultural production is to have economies of scale, the land must be continuous. However, as the land is already very small, if we want to transfer the land one after another, many farmers will be involved. Different farmers have different degrees of dependence on land-farmers who lack non-agricultural employment opportunities (such as the elderly) have the highest dependence on land. Depending on the degree of dependence, the willingness and asking price for the transfer of land will be different.

In the end, the land transfer can only take the highest asking price as the transaction price. The reason is that the land is immovable, and if it does not meet the demands of the highest-priced farmers, they may be reluctant to transfer the land-thus preventing the land from being contiguous. If you encounter a "hard nail" that is unwilling to transfer land, and the location of the land is precisely very special, then even if all other farmers are willing to transfer land, everyone's wish cannot be realized.

(2) secondly, "external radical promotion" leads to excessive land transfer. "external forces" (including the government, village collectives, enterprises, cooperatives, etc.) force farmers to transfer their land by making use of triads and other "violent powers", so that those farmers who were originally unwilling to transfer land are also forced to transfer their land. resulting in "excessive circulation". Due to the current agricultural policy orientation and "pressure system", it is difficult for grass-roots organizations to reflect and represent the real needs and preferences of farmers, resulting in compulsion in land transfer.

On the whole, the current agricultural policy orientation is to exclude small farmers, but tends to support large-scale operation and characteristic agriculture. The stress system amplifies this exclusion of small farmers. In the government's policy documents, there are not only various subsidies and preferential policies for land transfer, but also rigid land transfer tasks or indicators issued at various levels, signed certificates of responsibility, incorporated into the target management responsibility system, and evaluated. Linked with promotion, bonus, performance, arranging special personnel supervision and other administrative incentives.

As the saying goes, "if there is something good at the top, there must be a lot at the bottom." The above starting point may be good, but once it is implemented below, it will often be task-oriented or even politicized. Therefore, in order to complete the superior task, it is often difficult for grass-roots officials to take into account the needs and preferences of farmers and their actual wishes. This involuntary land transfer goes against the wishes of farmers in the village, who are often the most vulnerable group of farmers (Zhang Jianlei, 2014), harming their rights and interests and likely to lead to social conflicts.

In a word, the operation mode of land circulation is various, which has the effect of anti-land fragmentation, but there may also be the problem of "insufficient circulation" or "excessive circulation". The collective intervention of village groups will further increase this effectiveness. at the same time, it also aggravates the above problems. The "insufficient circulation" of land shows that there is room for further improvement in the anti-fragmentation of land, while the "excessive circulation" of land shows that the work of anti-fragmentation of land deviates from the current rural reality and deviates from the current interests of farmers in the village.

(2) Land renovation-anti-land fragmentation of engineering technology

Land renovation reflects man's understanding and transformation of nature, which appeared in our country as early as 3000 years ago. With the deepening of understanding, the connotation of land renovation is becoming richer and richer, and the function is becoming more and more perfect. Land renovation refers to the activities of reclamation of unused land suitable for agriculture, comprehensive renovation of fields, water, roads, forests and villages, restoration and utilization of land damaged by history such as abandoned industrial and mining areas and land damaged by natural disasters, in order to improve the quality of cultivated land, increase the area of effective cultivated land, optimize land use structure, improve land utilization rate, improve agricultural production conditions and ecological environment.

1. The Mode and function of Land renovation

Lu Xin she (2002) summarized seven types of land consolidation in China. Among them, agricultural land renovation is the main body of land renovation in China, including agricultural land renovation and collective construction land renovation (Tian Meng, 2014). From the point of view of engineering technology and renovation objectives, agricultural land renovation can be divided into three models: new cultivated land conservation, industrial reconstruction and landscape ecological union; collective construction land renovation can be divided into residential reclamation model, new community reconstruction model and urban and rural construction land linking model (Zhang Shichao, 2014).

Although Wu et al found that land consolidation in comprehensive agricultural development in China had no effect on the reduction of farmland fragmentation, Lu Xiao et al (2011) questioned the representativeness of their conclusion on the grounds that the sample size of the study was too small. Generally speaking, land regulation helps to overcome land fragmentation, which has been confirmed by a large number of studies and has become a basic academic and policy consensus.

In the process of land renovation, village groups often need to play a very important role and function. Land renovation needs to deal with farmers, and its fundamental goal is to meet the needs of farmers engaged in agricultural production. Therefore, the participation of farmers in land renovation is not only a subjective desire, but also an objective requirement. From the preparation and declaration of land renovation planning, to the implementation and supervision of land renovation projects, to the adjustment of land ownership and resource allocation after land renovation, to the follow-up maintenance and management of irrigation and water conservancy infrastructure after land renovation, and so on, every link can not lack the participation of farmers. In the absence of farmers' participation, the effect of land renovation will inevitably be greatly discounted. However, different farmers have different preferences for the needs of agricultural production, therefore, land renovation work needs to properly classify and screen these demand preferences, and respond to and even solve the needs of farmers. But it comes at a cost. At the practical level, the main channel for villagers' participation is to "entrust" the village group collective, or under the leadership of the village group collective to set up corresponding farmers' independent organizations (such as farmers' cultivated land protection association, supervision committee, etc.) to collect, organize and express their needs and preferences, and actively supervise the quality and construction period of the implementation of the land project. This not only greatly reduces the cost of obtaining farmers' demand preference in land renovation, but also reduces the cost of construction supervision, which is conducive to the smooth implementation of land renovation work, and the renovation effect can be brought into full play.

two。 The problem of Land renovation and its improvement

However, there are indeed problems in the work of land renovation. At present, the land renovation work promoted by the "project" led by the Ministry of Land and Resources lacks overall planning, cooperation and coordination, pays attention to increasing cultivated land as the goal, and emphasizes the use of engineering and technical means to change the physical form of land and soil structure. It not only ignores the integration of farmers' land rights and the adjustment or replacement of plots, but also ignores the expansion of farmers' unit farming area. As a result, the land renovation failed to give full play to its due contribution.

The reason for this problem is that Gao Xiangjun et al (2011) believes that it is due to the lack of unified normative policies and measures and the lack of inter-departmental cooperation in the current rural land renovation work, and the contradiction between comprehensive land renovation and the lag of village-level planning. financing channel is single, farmers lack financial incentives; performance appraisal mechanism has not been established, responsibility implementation is not clear; insufficient attention to farmers' will, lack of farmers' participation. The income distribution on the land is not clear and so on.

As to how to improve, Wang Jun (2011) and Yun Wenju (2011) proposed that land renovation should strengthen the support of ecological landscape theory, method and technology. On the basis of "raising the rural land renovation to the national strategy", Liu Yansui (2011) proposed that the promotion of land renovation should be combined with the construction of new countryside, with the renovation of hollow villages as the focus and core. Wu Cifang et al. (2011) put forward from a more abstract point of view that the theoretical vision of land regulation should be from physical form to functional system, rational paradigm should include tools, value and exchange rationality, and engineering positioning should be from project area to ecological farm. the strategic path should be from emergency target to system plan.

Zhang Fengrong et al (2009) believe that land renovation is not only a technical engineering problem, but also involves the reallocation of land use space, land ownership and land interests, and plot adjustment is an important link to maximize the benefits of land renovation projects. From the perspective of political science, Yu Biao (2014) put forward that under the certain technical conditions of the current land renovation project, the "agricultural governance" to solve the connection between large agriculture and small farmers is the key factor affecting the performance of farmland renovation. After evaluating the performance and problems of the two current agricultural land renovation models based on village groups and cooperatives, he said, "in addition to strengthening project management and improving engineering technology, the most important thing is to explore and find a new long-term model for managing agriculture."

In short, land renovation can eliminate those unreasonable factors that lead to land fragmentation at a certain level, and promote the appropriate scale of land. However, land regulation is also faced with many practical problems, such as the fragmentation of macro administrative power in policy implementation, the immaturity of project operation mode and unclear theoretical direction, the imperfection of project management system, the lack of farmers' participation mechanism and so on. All of these have caused the benefit loss of the land renovation work and affected the effective realization of the goal of anti-land fragmentation.