The Development process of domestic Policy on the scale of Family Farm

The Development process of domestic Policy on the scale of Family Farm

There is a lack of theoretical discussion on moderate scale operation of family farm in China. On the basis of using foreign theories for reference, the concept of Chinese family farm is mainly concentrated in the central policy documents, which can be divided into three stages. The first was from 1984 to 1986, when the government encouraged the development of family farms for workers to solve the operational problems faced by state-owned farms. The family farm first appeared in the form of a worker family farm. The second time was from 1993 to 1995, the discussion focused on how to implement large-scale operation, innovate land system and improve agricultural production efficiency, hoping to change the situation of land abandonment and decreasing labor input by means of large-scale operation. The third time was in 2013, after the family farm was clearly written into the Central No. 1 document as the main body of a new type of agricultural operation, it aroused widespread concern. The main purpose of this time is to solve the problems of who will cultivate the land, how to plant the land well, and how to realize agricultural modernization.

(1) Family farm and "worker family farm"

The domestic policy research on family farm can be traced back to "worker family farm". Since the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, the study of "household management" has become popular. On the basis of decentralized household management of small farmers, the government encouraged the development of workers' family farms when solving the problems faced by state-owned farms in the mid-1980s. It was pointed out in the No. 1 document of the Central Committee in 1984: "State farms should continue to carry out reform, implement the contract responsibility system based on output, and run family farms well." (more refers to family farmers than today's family farm operators.) in nature, "family farm" no longer belongs to the traditional family management of small farmers. It also belongs to the "agricultural enterprise" category, and there is a significant difference between "workers' family farms and workers' household contracts". The definition of family farm for workers and workers in the regulations of Family Farm of State Farm formulated in 1984 is: "under the leadership of state farm, an economic entity with household management, quota delivery, independent accounting and self-financing." Since then, there have been many studies on "worker family farms". For example, in 1987, there was a special article "the form, scale and Development trend of worker Family Farms" in Chinese Social Sciences, which divided the rising family farms into four types: single-family family farm, single-family family farm, single-family employment family farm and joint family farm. This paper analyzes and demonstrates the best form, the best scale and the development trend of each type. Obviously, the "family farm" of workers here has the nature of self-farming and employment, so the "family farm" here is more like a professional family, which is completely different from the decentralized small-scale peasant management.

During this period, a lot of research has been done around the definition, nature, scale operation and development way out of the worker family farm. Generally speaking, "worker family farm" is an agricultural operation organization mode on the basis of state-owned family farm, which not only has the component of self-cultivation, but also has a large proportion of employment. It is similar to the family farm emphasized at present, such as the deep degree of commercialization and the form of family organization; however, it is different from the current family farm, for example, it allows employment, its land is state-owned, and more importantly, it does not emphasize scale.

(2) Family farms and moderate scale operation

By the 1990s, one of the concepts closest to family farms was "moderate scale operation". In 1987, the No. 1 document of the Central Committee clearly pointed out for the first time that appropriate scale operation of land should be actively and steadily promoted in places where conditions were possible. in the following years, in economically developed areas such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the degree of land circulation and concentration reached a certain scale. Wuxi, Wuxian, Changshu and other places in Jiangsu have become important experimental areas for large-scale operation of the Ministry of Agriculture. As a reform experimental area for small-scale farmland to moderate scale management, Wuxi and other places have been highly valued and affirmed by the agricultural sector. At the same time, the land scale management form of "family management" ① has been taken as the focus of the development of moderate scale management of agricultural land. The article "from small-scale land sharing system to moderate scale operation" points out that the type of family management includes large farming households, family farms and joint farms, taking peasant households as units, mainly relying on their own labor to organize production and operation, independent accounting and self-financing. Here, "family farm" has been put forward as a form of "family management" farm, but it has not been explained and analyzed in detail. We can also draw from other articles that "farming expert" seems to be synonymous with the current concept of family farm. Generally speaking, these formulations mainly focus on "moderate scale operation". During the same period, someone put forward the concept of "family farm with Chinese characteristics". Gu Jianzhou wrote that "families contracted by state farms", "self-employed households" and "one-person-led and multi-person partnership to engage in development planting" are all regarded as "family farms with Chinese characteristics". Family farms with Chinese characteristics are "moderate scale, guided by domestic and foreign markets, with the goal of mass commodity production, and by means of giving full play to the subjective initiative and creativity of families. To continuously improve the degree of intensification and economic benefits of family management, and finally become a competitive economic entity in the rural market economy. It should be said that this text is quite similar to the concept of "family farm" in the current central document, such as the proposal to be market-oriented, which is different from self-sufficient decentralized family management, and the proposal of "intensive" management. it is close to the current mode of production of "intensification and commercialization". However, the article does not involve the specific scale and the level of agricultural income, but exists as a form different from hiring large farms, and does not explain in detail the differences between agricultural management forms such as professional large households and farming experts. The most important thing is that this formulation itself has not been expressed in the important documents of the central government, but only stays at the academic level.

(3) Family farms and agricultural modernization

If the concept of "family farm" can be traced back to "worker family farm" and "state-owned farm" in the 1980s, and was reflected in the formulation of moderate scale operation in the 1990s, then it really appeared as an analytical concept in 2013. The Central Committee document No. 1 in 2013 clearly pointed out that it is necessary to "create a good policy and legal environment, adopt incentives and subsidies and other means to support joint household management, professional large households, and family farms." the concept of "family farm" appeared in the Central Committee document for the first time. Since then, all aspects have made an understanding of the family farm, a new type of agricultural operator.

Domestic researcher Gao Qiang pointed out that, different from the traditional family enterprise, family farm is a new type of microeconomic organization based on family management and integrating modern production factors and concepts such as science and technology, information, agricultural machinery and so on. At the same time, traditional farmers will also be transformed into professional legal persons. This explanation follows the point of view of previous researchers. Similarly, Jiang Hui proposed that the family farm is the main body of modern agricultural management on the basis of family management, and the purpose of the family farm is to be market-oriented and pursue profit maximization. This is the same as Guanfu's definition of a family farm. Guanfuxin believes that the family farm has the institutional characteristics of marketization, specialization and socialization, and it also belongs to the enterprise-style mode of operation.

It should be said that the above discussion highlights the characteristics of family farms that are different from traditional small-scale farmers, that is, the scale, intensification and commercialization of family farms, but at the operational level, there is still a lack of targeted suggestions. The definition of family farm by the Ministry of Agriculture is a new type of agricultural production and management subject, which takes family members as the main labor force, engages in agricultural large-scale, intensive and commercial production and management, and takes agricultural income as the main source of household income. Obviously, the definition of family farm by the Ministry of Agriculture is more operational, but because it involves descriptive summaries such as "main labor force" and "main source of income", in order to facilitate government management, what is a family farm in practice? how large-scale is a family farm, or what are the core indicators of a family farm should be quantified more clearly. Let's first take a look at the development of family farms all over the country.