Central ministries and commissions intensively investigated the opening of agricultural reclamation reform

Since July this year, the "Research Group on Major issues of Land Reclamation Reform and Development," composed of the research office of the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, and other central organs, has gone to various reclamation areas throughout the country to conduct research, accumulating materials and paving the way for the next step in the reform of the land reclamation system.

"this survey is in accordance with the requirements of the leadership of the State Council, led by the Research Office of the State Council and the Ministry of Agriculture, with the participation of the Central Agricultural Office and other relevant ministries and commissions, and formed a total of eight research groups," a person from a government department told a reporter from the Shanghai Securities News yesterday. "directly to the reclamation areas, the task is to conduct research on major issues concerning the reform and development of land reclamation throughout the country and promote the drafting of relevant documents."

According to the Shanghai Securities News, the reporter inquired about the public data of the multi-land land reclamation department and found that this survey is rare in recent years in terms of extensiveness and intensity: from July 7 to 9, the national comprehensive research group on land reclamation reform went to Yunnan reclamation area to carry out research; from July 13 to 16, the research group went to Changde, Yueyang and other reclamation areas in Hunan to conduct special research; from July 17 to 19, the research group conducted research in Guangdong reclamation area. On July 20, the research group appeared in Jiaozuo, Henan Province, to investigate the basic situation of state-owned farms, the land reclamation management system, and the internal social management system of the farm; from July 21 to 23, the research team came to Hubei reclamation area to carry out special research on human resources and social security.

"judging from the wide range of areas that this survey focuses on, this is a systematic survey," an employee of a local land reclamation group told the Shanghai Stock Exchange News. "the goal is to improve the operational efficiency of state-owned farms."

As a product of a specific historical period, China's land reclamation system has maintained the attribute of planned economy for a long time, and is even called "the last bastion of planned economy". "the land reclamation system is a very special system in China," says Ye Qing, deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Bureau of Statistics. "there are many state-owned farms in Hubei, such as Longgan Lake Farm and May 3rd Farm. There are more land reclamation enterprises in some major reclamation areas. "

It is understood that after the founding of New China in 1949, based on political, military and economic considerations, state-owned farms began to be established in the border areas and provinces, thus forming a management system with the combination of business functions and social functions.

"there are many historical factors in the formation of the unit group of land reclamation," Zhang Xiliang, a researcher at the Research Center of the State-owned assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, told reporters. "A considerable number of them are demobilized, and educated young people going to the mountains and countryside have also strengthened this team. agricultural reclamation areas undertake different key tasks in different historical periods."

After the reform and opening up, the land reclamation system has also changed, and most of the land reclamation enterprises have been devolved to the local SASAC for management. in the 1990s, the direction of the reform of the land reclamation system is "the separation of management functions and social functions". This has also given birth to many business entities, including some planting listed companies in today's A-shares. For example, 16 of the 113 farms under Heilongjiang Land Reclamation have stripped off their operating assets and integrated to form a listed company, Beidahuang.

"although the reform has been carried out for so many years, it should be said that the overall operating efficiency of most land reclamation state-owned enterprises is not good," a securities analyst told reporters. "it is still the management idea of the planned economy in the past."

According to an analysis report of Qilu Securities, some listed planting enterprises "continue the traditional management thinking of the land reclamation system for many years, the overall management efficiency is low, and do not give full play to the advantages and characteristics of resource-based enterprises." In particular, the report said, for example, over the past 10 years, neither Beidahuang nor the listed companies under the Xinjiang Construction Corps have shown the operational advantages of resource-based enterprises, and "the management level and market-oriented mechanism are still in the era of land reclamation planned economy."

"although it is necessary to separate business functions from social functions, it is difficult to completely separate the grass-roots level," the analyst told reporters. "this is also an important reason for business inefficiency."

According to a brokerage data, there are currently more than 2000 farms in the country, with a land area of 6 million hectares. The land reclamation system uses 3.98 per cent of the country's crop sown area to contribute 6.61 per cent of the country's total agricultural output value.

If the level of corporate governance can be improved, greater potential will be released.

For the next reform direction, Guoxin Securities predicts that land transfer will be gradually accepted by professional production cooperatives and large agricultural production groups. "at the present stage, there is mainly the problem of mismanagement in China's large agricultural production groups (land reclamation and corps system, etc.). The reform plan of state-owned enterprises will stimulate the improvement of their management," the report wrote. "it can be said that large agricultural production groups will benefit from the large-scale effects brought about by land transfer on the one hand, and the improvement of management level brought about by the reform of state-owned enterprises on the other."