Beware of damage to the interests of farmers in land transfer

With the acceleration of urbanization and agricultural modernization in China, the circulation of rural land is also obviously accelerated. Practice has proved that land circulation and moderate scale operation should be the road to the development of modern agriculture. However, in the process of promoting urban-rural integration, China needs to carry out a series of institutional arrangements to protect the interests of farmers.

Urban-rural dual structure and rural land management system

Since 1958, China has gradually formed a strict household registration management system by promulgating the regulations of the people's Republic of China on Household Registration, which restricts the flow of rural population into cities, so that in the nearly 30 years before the reform and opening up, the rural labor force is rarely transferred to the industrial sector and cities, but basically stranded in the agricultural sector. Since the reform and opening up, with the development of market economy, the relationship between urban and rural areas has been significantly strengthened, but the dual structure system of urban-rural separation has not been fundamentally changed. The social management system of "separation of urban and rural areas, one city, two policies, one place, two people, and one thing, two systems" evolved from the household registration system not only restricts farmers' freedom of movement, but also hinders the benign operation of economy and society. it restricts the process of urbanization and urban-rural integration.

The current land management system in China still has the characteristics of urban-rural dual structure: urban land is state-owned and rural land is owned by collectives; the right of management and income of rural land is granted to farmers in the way of contracting. Peasant families carry out production and operation as independent production and management units; agricultural land must be changed into state-owned land after expropriation. Land transfer is carried out in accordance with the law on the basis of the long-term stability of the existing land contract relationship, and does not change the ownership of collective land, but only the land contractual management right.

Because there is no clear definition of the constituent elements and operating principles of "peasant collective" as the subject of land ownership, the boundary and status of the representative of property rights and the subject of enforcement are not clearly defined, and the interest relationship between "peasant collective" and individual farmers is not solved. farmers do not enjoy equal exchange rights in the process of land expropriation, and the price of farmers' land increases greatly after land expropriation, and these value-added benefits are often occupied by land expropriation departments. It leads to the infringement of farmers' land rights and the damage of land interests.

First of all, the economic rights and interests of farmers are damaged. Under the urban-rural dual structure, farmers' economic rights and interests are mostly related to the land they own, and with the economic and social development and the acceleration of urbanization, the property of farmers' land and the property rights of land as farmers become more and more obvious. The expropriation of land means the loss of the economic rights and interests attached to the land, which is undoubtedly the damage to the economic rights and interests of farmers under the background that the compensation system for land expropriation is not perfect and the social security system remains to be perfected. The uncertainty of the scope of land expropriation and the non-standard procedures are also violations of farmers' land rights. At the same time, the income right of farmers' land and the distribution right of land expropriation income are infringed because of the current low standard of compensation for land expropriation and the unclear ownership of compensation fees, resulting in damage to the corresponding rights and interests of farmers. It is worth paying attention to that the state monopolizes the primary land market, and farmers collectively have no right to change their land to urban land use with higher income, which leads to the deprivation of farmers' right to land development. on the other hand, most of the income of land increment is enjoyed by the state and land use units, so that what farmers get collectively is only the compensation of farmland income.

Secondly, the social rights and interests of farmers are damaged. Land is the source of farmers' survival, work and social security. Before the establishment of new security, losing land means losing everything. Due to the urban-rural dual structure, there are major defects in the rural social security system, coupled with the low compensation for land expropriation, and farmers enter the sequence of urban residents after losing their land, although some enjoy some social security and some arrange jobs, but compared with urban residents, the vast majority are still in the lower class of society.

Finally, the political rights and interests of farmers are damaged. Due to the vague definition of the subject of agricultural land ownership in law, the subject of agricultural land ownership is often falsely placed in reality, resulting in the lack of suitable spokesmen for farmers in the process of land expropriation, the lack of the right to speak, and the right to know and participation are often ignored. Farmers are also difficult to organize themselves because of various problems with each other, and their negotiation ability with the government and land use units is limited. In this way, in the end, farmers even know nothing about how much land they have been requisitioned, the state's compensation policy for land expropriation, and whether the government and village collectives have participated in the distribution. In addition, due to the limited economic capacity of land-lost farmers and the imperfect national legal aid system for land-lost farmers, land-lost farmers often have no way to complain if they have different opinions on land expropriation.

Urban-rural Integration and Rural Land Circulation

In the past decade, especially in recent years, urban-rural integration has gradually become an important national strategy. The basic idea of urban-rural integration is that relatively developed cities and relatively backward rural areas should break down the barriers of mutual division, gradually realize the rational flow and optimal combination of factors of production, and promote the rational distribution of productive forces between urban and rural areas. we will closely integrate and coordinate the economic and social life between urban and rural areas, gradually reduce or eliminate the basic differences between urban and rural areas, and integrate urban and rural areas. Among them, the equalization of the basic rights and interests of urban and rural residents is the premise of the integrated development of urban and rural areas. At present, the gap between urban and rural areas is mainly reflected in the gap between urban and rural public services, while the inequality of the rights and interests of urban and rural residents is mainly reflected in the inequality of property rights and household registration system. The key to rationalizing the allocation of urban and rural factors is to establish a factor market for the integration of urban and rural areas, eliminate man-made obstacles, give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, and promote the two-way free flow of various factors of production between urban and rural areas.

Land is an important factor of production, according to the development idea of urban-rural integration, the market should also play a decisive role in land allocation, although there is still a problem of land use control, such as turning cultivated land into construction land. must be in line with urban and rural construction planning, and go through the corresponding legal procedures, but under the operation of individual local government land finance, its role in restricting the transfer of agricultural land is minimal. Therefore, in terms of the comparison between the urban-rural integration and the land management system under the urban-rural dual structure, some new situations have emerged in the rural land circulation.

First, in the context of urban-rural integration, the difference between urban and rural land set by the current land management system is likely to blur and disappear. For example, the conversion of cultivated land into construction land is likely to bypass the legal stipulation that rural collective-owned land must be transformed into state-owned land for development and construction, so that it is no longer necessary to carry out compensation and resettlement procedures for land expropriation, demolition and relocation. In this way, rural land will be treated equally with urban land, which will undoubtedly open the door for individual local governments to plunder farmers' land.

Second, although the land management system under the urban-rural dual structure, especially the land expropriation system, infringes upon farmers' land rights and damages their land interests, farmers can still obtain certain social security by turning into urban residents. and get some economic compensation. Under the slogan of urban-rural integration, individual local governments take the way of transferring farmers to cities and towns as a whole to forcibly obtain farmers' land. However, if these farmers who move to cities and towns do not enjoy the same social security system as urban residents, it will be meaningless to change rural hukou to urban hukou, and facts have proved the existence of this concern.

Third, rural land expropriation under the urban-rural dual structure has a certain resettlement policy for farmers who have changed to non-agricultural household registration, so land-lost farmers will get some employment opportunities. In the process of urban-rural integration, the compensation and employment opportunities for land-expropriated farmers may shrink. Due to the limitation of industrialization and urbanization and the lack of employment skills of farmers, it is not easy for landless farmers to get jobs, which makes their right to re-employment nowhere to be realized. The livelihood is not guaranteed, and it is difficult to re-employment, land-lost farmers will become a new vulnerable group, and social stability will be greatly affected.

Therefore, due to the improper actions of individual local governments, in this sense, it can even be said that the dual structure of urban and rural areas has formed a protection mechanism for farmers. In order to develop the integration of urban and rural areas and the transfer of agricultural land, we must take the countryside as the center and change the passive compulsion into the active choice of farmers.

New institutional arrangements are needed to protect farmers' land rights.

Rural land is not only the basic means of livelihood for farmers, but also an important means of production for rural economic and social development. For a long time, the contradiction between large population and little land in rural areas and low land utilization rate coexists. Speeding up the circulation of rural land is an important way to alleviate the contradiction between large population and little land and make efficient use of limited land resources. it can optimize the allocation of land resources, promote the large-scale operation of rural land, and effectively improve the utilization rate of rural land. it can also make the rational circulation of rural land, promote the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure, and promote the development of agricultural industrialization. Therefore, in the process of urban-rural integration in China, the realization of farmers' land transfer is an inevitable trend.

What needs to be emphasized more is that land transfer is the legal right of farmers. The third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee put forward "adhere to the collective ownership of rural land, safeguard farmers' land contractual management rights in accordance with the law, and develop and strengthen the collective economy." We should stabilize the contracted relationship of rural land and maintain it for a long time. On the premise of adhering to and improving the strictest cultivated land protection system, we should give farmers the right to mortgage and guarantee the possession, use, income, circulation and contractual management of contracted land. Allow farmers to participate in the contracted management right to develop agricultural industrialization management ", and give farmers the right to free circulation of agricultural land.

It should be noted that while land transfer brings benefits to agricultural land management and agricultural development, it also objectively makes some farmers have no land to grow. For the future social security of this part of the population, enough attention should be paid to the process of urban-rural integration. Through the top-level design of the system, we can ensure that the cultivated land will not be lost or the capital can not merge the land excessively, so as to ensure the survival rights of the landless farmers while realizing the appropriate scale operation of agricultural land. For this reason, we not only need to eliminate the existing unreasonable systems and solve the problems of unfairness and misconduct of individual systems, but also need to carry out some institutional innovation to solve the problems of weakness and failure of individual systems; it is not only necessary to achieve and protect farmers' economic equality and rights and interests, but also need to achieve and protect farmers' political equality and rights and interests.

First of all, in the expropriation of agricultural land, reform and implement the system of expropriation of agricultural land to ensure the interests of farmers. We will further improve the land expropriation system, clarify the scope of land expropriation, standardize the procedures of land expropriation, adjust the distribution of income, and promptly implement the policy of compensation for land expropriation and resettlement of personnel and follow-up security measures under legal and voluntary circumstances, so as to prevent farmers from "losing their jobs" after losing their land. Avoid illegal acts that infringe upon farmers' rights and interests, such as forced expropriation and demolition, and reduce social contradictions. The third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee 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. We will expand the scope of paid use of state-owned land and reduce the allocation of non-public welfare land. To establish a land value-added income distribution mechanism that takes into account the state, collectives and individuals, and reasonably improve individual income "is a policy effort in this direction.

Secondly, the actual needs of farmers should be fully taken into account in the problem of agricultural land transfer. For example, for farmers who are ready to go to the city, they welcome the free circulation of land or the expropriation. For this kind of farmers, what is important is that after giving up their status as farmers, they can settle down in cities and towns, enjoy social security, and have stable jobs that can make ends meet and live and work in peace and contentment. Otherwise, if they can not enjoy the treatment of urban population, return to their hometown and lose their land and have no houses, they will never take this road. Therefore, if they are not forced, they are not willing to give up the land, but prefer to retain the land as an exit and insurance. Only when they really have access to urban social security can they give up rural land. Thus it can be seen that for land transfer, only through institutional security arrangements can it become a rational choice for farmers.

As for the farmers who are ready to carry out large-scale operation of agricultural land, they undoubtedly want to obtain more circulation of agricultural land, and do not want the farmland to flow to the hands of outsiders, especially urban capital. If there are no object restrictions on the transfer of agricultural land, then they can not compete with urban capital at all. Compared with urban capital, urban capital obviously has more powerful bidding power. As more farmland flows to urban capital, their business scale will not expand, on the contrary, the business situation is likely to worsen. Therefore, it is necessary to regulate the free circulation of agricultural land and restrict the free circulation and transaction of agricultural land to anyone, so as to protect the interests of farmers who are really willing to carry out large-scale operation. Thus it can be seen that for land transfer, institutional regulation arrangements are needed in order to become a rational choice for farmers.

Finally, at present, the fundamental measure to solve the problem of agricultural land transfer is to eliminate the differential treatment of urban and rural residents in various aspects attached to household registration, such as housing, employment, social security, education, health care, taxation, finance and finance. to achieve the unity of urban and rural policies and the fairness of the system. Specifically, we must further deepen the reform of the household registration system, guide the rational transfer of rural surplus labor force, improve the management of the transferred population, gradually unify the urban and rural labor market so that urban and rural workers can obtain equal employment, and speed up the process of urbanization. agricultural population with stable jobs and residences in cities can register locally and enjoy the rights and obligations that local residents should have. We will promote the integration of the social security system in urban and rural areas, unify the old-age, unemployment and medical insurance for urban and rural residents, and relieve the worries of farmers going to cities.