The return of Farmers' Land Rights in the New relationship between Urban and Rural areas

Land is not only an important factor of production, but also the institutional bottleneck of rural reform and development. The decision of the CPC Central Committee on several Major issues of comprehensively deepening Reform (hereinafter referred to as the "decision") adopted by the third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee has pointed out the direction and the path for some controversial but policy-evaded problems in the land system that have been urgently needed to be answered in reform practice for many years. This is of great significance to deepen the reform of the rural system, improve the system and mechanism of the integration of urban and rural development, form a new type of urban-rural relationship between workers and farmers, and improve farmers' land rights.

I. the connotation of farmers' land rights in the context of the new relationship between workers and farmers in urban and rural areas.

1. Right of contracted management of rural land

How to understand the right of contracted management of rural land?

(1) according to the property law, the contracted management right of rural land is a kind of usufruct. The "decision" once again made it clear that it is necessary to stabilize the rural land contract relationship and keep it unchanged for a long time. After confirming the right of the contracted land, some local contracted land have recorded the contract term as "unchanged for a long time" on the certificate of contracted management right. How long will it last? Should we follow the practice of the previous two times and give another time limit after the expiration of the second round of the contract? It has been suggested that the contract period should be set at 70 years with reference to the time limit of urban real estate land. No consensus has been reached on this issue and further discussion is needed. However, the problem of rural land is very complicated, and even if there are policies or even legal regulations, some specific problems may not be implemented. For example, the provision in Article 27 of the Rural Land contract Law that land cannot be transferred has not been implemented in some places. Therefore, it is suggested that the contract should remain unchanged for a long time on the basis of confirming the rights of the contracted land, and the direct extension of the contract should be announced after the expiration of the second round of the contract, so as to show the determination of the central government to stabilize the contracting relationship. As for the specific problems, it is up to the common people to solve them.

(2) what are the powers of the contractual management right? According to the Rural Land contract Law, in addition to possession, use and income, there are subcontracts, transfers, leases, swaps, and shares in agricultural cooperative production. The decision increases the power of mortgage and guarantee, and expands the power of rural land contractual management rights to participate in the development of agricultural industrialization. In theory, as far as the contracting of cultivated land is concerned, there is still an inheritance right that has not been explained. In addition, as the rural land contract is based on peasant households, if it is only the increase or decrease of family members, it does not involve the adjustment of contracted land, and there is no question of inheritance.

(3) about mortgage and guarantee. This is a major breakthrough in the rural land system. In recent years, almost all pilot projects in many places have been exploring mortgage methods, but there are great disputes among theorists and policy makers in various aspects. The focus of the dispute is two points: first, the mortgage risk, worried that if the contracted land mortgage fails to repay the loan, farmers will lose their land, or lead to land merger; second, worried about inoperable, how do banks deal with contracted land as collateral? Local governments have a set of risk prevention practices, such as the government to establish a risk deposit, the risk deposit to bear 80% of the loss, the bank to bear only 20%; the land used for mortgage is controlled at 2% of the contracted land area, and so on. In addition, banks also have rules to guard against credit risks. The author believes that from the point of view of deepening the reform of the rural property right system, from the perspective of the integrated development of urban and rural areas, and from the point of view of equal rights, equal opportunities and equal rules, farmers should be given the right to mortgage contracted land. it also gives farmers one more way out for loans.

(4) whether the peasants entering the city will withdraw from the contracted land. According to the Rural Land contract Law, if the whole family enters a city divided into districts and settles down, they must withdraw. In practice, there are those who use contracted land in exchange for social security, and there are also those who do not require withdrawal. After entering the city, farmers can share in the cooperative with contracted land. Although it is still controversial at present, it should be protected as a right and should not be forced to withdraw; in addition, there are more than 160 million migrant workers who go out. In order to encourage migrant workers to settle down, we should choose the voluntary principle and allow farmers to bring land to cities (including big cities). At the same time, explore the establishment of a paid exit mechanism.

(5) about the circulation of agricultural land. To develop modern agriculture, we must take the road of moderate scale operation. Deng Xiaoping put forward two leaps in the early 1990s. In order to operate on a moderate scale, the circulation of contracted land is indispensable. In recent years, new types of business entities such as large farmers, family farms, farmers' cooperatives, agricultural enterprises, and social service organizations have developed rapidly, while land circulation has also been accelerated. it also shows the characteristics of scale transfer, piece-by-piece circulation, and the increase in the proportion of enterprise and cooperative circulation, and there are compulsory circulation and village cadres' arranged transfer in some places, which go against the wishes of farmers. The transfer of contracted land must respect the wishes of farmers, must not force farmers to transfer, do not harm their interests, do not change the agricultural use of land, and do not destroy the comprehensive production capacity of agriculture.

two。 The right to the use of rural collective construction land

The decision gives the symmetrical power of rural collective construction land and state-owned construction land-"equal access to the market, same rights and same price", which provides an institutional guarantee for the establishment of a unified urban and rural construction land market. For a long time, the institutional arrangement of land is that the government highly monopolizes the primary market. except for rural collectives and villagers to set up township enterprises, villagers to build houses and rural public facilities, and public welfare undertakings, collective land cannot be used directly for any other construction. it must be expropriated as state-owned construction land, which not only loses efficiency, but also harms fairness. In recent years, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Tianjin, Chongqing, Chengdu and other places have carried out pilot projects for the transfer and utilization of collective construction land, and explored different transfer modes.

Some people call it a revolutionary reform to "enter the market equally, have the same power and price", and Minister Jiang Daming of the Ministry of Land and Resources called it "an ice-breaking journey to start the reform of the rural land system." There are still different views on this. But the author thinks that its significance has at least three points.

The main contents are as follows: (1) it defines the direction for improving the power of collective construction land. In the future, rural collective construction land can enter the market on an equal footing with state-owned construction land, sell, lease and buy shares in the primary market, and lease, transfer and mortgage in the secondary market.

(2) it is helpful to break the monopoly of the government in the primary market of construction land, hand over the allocation right of land resources to the market, and break down the institutional obstacles for the reform of land expropriation system and the overall development of urban and rural areas. Scarce resources, only market allocation can really improve efficiency, change the mode of development, and maximize benefits.

(3) it is beneficial for farmers to directly participate in the process of industrialization and urbanization and directly share the benefits brought by industrialization and urbanization. Of course, there are some systems or measures that need to be clarified: first, what are the conditions for the entry of rural commercial construction land into the market, and how to formulate a scientific and reasonable plan and ensure strict implementation? Second, is collective ownership allowed for land in cities and towns? On the one hand, in order to narrow the scope of land expropriation, urban land may not necessarily be expropriated in the future; on the other hand, the "decision" proposes that as long as it meets the requirements of planning and use control, collective management construction land can enjoy the same right and the same price as state-owned land in the same construction land market, which means that there will be collective land in urban areas in the future, but our Constitution makes it clear that urban land is owned by the state. Third, can farmers' collective economic organizations use collective construction land to develop real estate for use by members of the organization (buying and selling)? At present, there are three kinds of housing in China: commercial housing, rural homestead housing and small property rights housing. It should be said that the central government has a clear attitude towards small property rights houses, and the relevant ministries and commissions have repeatedly ordered and banned them. But what if the farmers' collective organizations develop real estate on the collective construction land and sell it to the members of the organization? It is suggested that pilot exploration should be allowed.

3. Income right of land-expropriated farmers

Contradictions and disputes over rural land expropriation have become the biggest factor affecting rural social stability and the primary cause of mass petitions in rural areas. local governments are concerned about the demand for construction land in industrialization and urbanization, and farmers are concerned about the level of compensation. the central government is concerned about cultivated land protection and food security. Since the reform and opening up, the land expropriation system has been reformed three times, one is to explore a variety of compensation and resettlement methods in the middle and late 1990s, the second is to raise the compensation standard in 2004, and the third is to explore to narrow the scope of land expropriation after the third Plenary session of the 17th CPC Central Committee. The 17th Plenary session of the CPC Central Committee and the 18th CPC National Congress respectively put forward the requirements of "strictly defining public welfare and commercial construction land, gradually reducing the scope of land expropriation", "reforming the land expropriation system, and increasing the distribution proportion of farmers in land value-added income". The decision of the third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee also proposed to "reduce the scope of land expropriation, standardize the procedures of land expropriation, and improve the reasonable, standardized and pluralistic security mechanism for land expropriated farmers." It should be said that the central government has a clear direction for the reform of the land expropriation system, and the key to the next implementation is to further improve the system and refine measures, including: how to define public welfare land? How to determine the standard of compensation? How to improve the way of compensation and resettlement?

(1) about public welfare land. Everyone has no objection to the use of land for national defense and foreign affairs, and there are differences on the inclusion of transportation, water, electricity, and other infrastructure, education, cultural and health facilities in the scope of land expropriation, while they generally hold a negative attitude towards the inclusion of industrial and commercial land in the scope of land expropriation. However, foreign countries will also have different understandings according to economic development. For example, in the stage of rapid economic development, South Korea included iron making, fertilizer and other important undertakings stipulated by presidential decree (such as electronics and shipbuilding, engine manufacturing, cement production, etc.) in the scope of "public interest" to allow land expropriation. however, after the economic development to a higher level, the above-mentioned undertakings were excluded from the scope of land expropriation in 2002. This shows that the concept of public welfare is relative and phased. In the United States, the practice of defining public welfare and preventing arbitrariness through congressional or court precedents is worthy of reference.

(2) the standard of compensation. At present, it is calculated according to Article 47 of the Land Management Law that the average output value of the land requisitioned in the first three years is less than 30 times. Although the actual compensation has obviously exceeded this standard, farmers still think that the compensation is too low, generally 30, 000-50, 000 yuan per 667m2. According to a survey conducted by the Development Research Center of the State Council, the compensation for land expropriation received by farmers accounts for only 5% to 10% of the total land value-added income. In the future, the compensation for land expropriation should be changed according to the original land use as fair compensation, with reference to the local land transaction market price. Strictly speaking, compulsory land expropriation is forced by the change of ownership, and property rights should be protected, that is, the economic value of property should comply with market rules.

(3) about the way of compensation. In recent years, some localities have explored ways of retaining land and property resettlement in the process of land expropriation, leaving part of the land to the village for development to ensure long-term and stable income, which is welcomed by the masses. For example, the two villages in Fuyang City, Zhejiang Province can get operating income of 7 million yuan and 2.8 million yuan per year respectively, and the effect is very good. Therefore, these multiple security resettlement methods should be summarized and promoted.

4. Right to the use of rural residential land

China's rural homestead, farmers' housing and urban real estate are completely different policies. The system of the right to the use of rural homestead is characterized by "collective ownership, villagers' use; one household, one house, limited area; welfare distribution, long-term use; restriction of power, free recovery". Its value orientation is to maintain the public ownership of land, protect farmers' residence rights, and strictly protect cultivated land. Historically, from 1950 to 1952, homestead and houses were owned by individual farmers, but with the promotion of cooperation and people's commune system, homestead, like other rural land, belonged to the collective. With the development of industrialization and urbanization, rural homestead management is also faced with new problems, such as overoccupation of homestead, vacant residential land and idle homestead. According to the estimates of the Geographic Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the comprehensive renovation of rural "hollow villages" across the country can increase the potential of cultivated land by 7.67 million hm2. In recent years, there have been calls to reform the homestead management system, mainly focusing on whether the one-family-one-house system should be adhered to, whether the paid use system should be implemented, whether the right to the use of homestead should be mortgaged, and so on.

The decision clearly proposes to protect the usufruct of farmers' homestead and reform and improve the rural homestead system. How to reform? It is stressed that through pilot projects, we should cautiously and steadily promote the mortgage, guarantee and transfer of farmers' housing property rights, and explore ways for farmers to increase their property income. At present, there are different ways to use homestead in pilot areas, and there are two aspects from the guiding ideology and starting point: first, to serve the needs of urbanization and industrialization, to carry out comprehensive land renovation and increase or decrease, and to exchange homestead for urban housing; second, to increase farmers' income and rural land development, to carry out farmers' housing mortgage, leasing, the development of farm music, rural tourism and so on. In recent years, property income has accounted for more than 20% of farmers' income in some more developed places in the eastern coastal areas, but the ratio is very low, about 3% in the whole country. Rural homestead is related to the survival of farmers' children and grandchildren, and is the basic survival material. from its history and the welfare function of homestead, the reform of homestead should be cautious, but from the perspective of assets and increasing farmers' property income, 13.33 million hm2 homestead is a huge wealth and has a lot of room for reform. However, at this stage, the author believes that the pilot project of homestead reform should adhere to the closed operation within the scope of rural collective economic organizations, and rural homestead and houses should not be opened to the public.

5. Income right of rural collective assets

Land is the largest collective asset, because land is a scarce resource, coupled with the implementation of common ownership, rural collective land is not transferable and exclusive, so that every member will find a way to occupy land and obtain income, which is not conducive to asset management and improve efficiency. In some places, there is a serious loss of collective assets and serious collective liabilities. In recent years, various localities have begun to explore the reform of collective assets, through the establishment of collective assets joint-stock companies or land share cooperatives, quantify collective assets to people, implement corporate management, clarify property rights, and play a role in increasing and preserving the value of collective assets. it also protects the rights and interests of members of collective economic organizations. The decision gives farmers the right to occupy, gain and withdraw from the shares of collective assets, which the author thinks is an affirmation of the practice of reform and defines the reform direction of collective assets at the same time.