Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs: Safeguard the land contracting rights, homestead use rights, and collective income distribution rights of farmers who have settled in urban areas in accordance with the law

The Information Office of the State Council held a series of press conferences on the theme of "Promoting High-quality Development" at 10 a.m. on July 24, and Han Jun, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, attended the briefing and answered questions from reporters.

The just-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 20 th CPC Central Committee made systematic arrangements for further deepening reform, and rural reform was an important content. So, what are the priorities for the next reform? How will it move forward?

At the press conference, Han Jun, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said:

Agricultural and rural reform in the plenary session of the "Decision" is very heavy, the "Decision" has a special chapter to improve the urban-rural integration of the development of the system and mechanism to make systematic arrangements, clear rural reform key tasks, for the new journey to promote rural reform to provide an important follow and basis. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will deeply study and comprehend the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, carefully grasp the key tasks of agricultural and rural reform, and add impetus and vitality to the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas. The main thing is to do a good job in three aspects, which is also a key task in the three major areas of rural reform.

First, it is necessary to persist in consolidating and perfecting the basic management system in rural areas. China's reform originated in the rural areas, and this year is the 46th year of rural reform. That is, the basic management system in the rural areas has been formed. On April 25, 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at a symposium on rural reform presided over by Xiaogang Village, Anhui Province, that "the rural reform in the mainland starts from the good handling of the relationship between farmers and land" and "the biggest policy is to adhere to and improve the basic rural management system". We often say that the basic management system in the rural areas is the cornerstone of the party's rural policy, and the basic management system in the rural areas has clear requirements in terms of policy, and there are three pillars of policy. The first is to uphold the system of collective ownership of rural land, the second is to uphold the basic status of household management, and the third is to persist in stabilizing land contract relations. The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made specific arrangements for consolidating and improving the basic rural management system, emphasizing the orderly promotion of the second round of land contracts after the expiration of the pilot project for another 30 years, deepening the reform of the "separation of powers" of ownership, contracting rights and management rights of contracted land, and developing moderately large-scale agricultural operations. If the first round of land contracts is counted from the beginning of the rural reform, the second round of land contracts will be extended for another 30 years after the expiration of the second round of land contracts, and the rural land contract relationship will be maintained for up to 75 years. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will, in accordance with the arrangements of the central authorities, conscientiously implement the policy of consolidating and perfecting the basic rural management system, which is the largest policy in rural areas. This year, we have launched the second round of three pilot projects for the whole province, these three provinces are Anhui, Hunan and Guangxi, where I have worked, and now other provinces are also organizing the whole county and township pilot projects, and the general policy tone is to adhere to the overall extension and ensure that the original contracted land of the vast majority of rural households continues to remain stable, which is very clear in policy. In the next step, it is necessary to continue to guide the orderly circulation of land management rights, improve the agricultural management system, improve the agricultural socialized service system, and better bring small farmers into the track of modern agricultural development. Can smallholder farmers effectively connect with modern agriculture? Yes, it's totally possible. Not long ago, I went to Hebei to conduct research and saw a 74-year-old lady, and I asked her if she still had land at home. She said there were still six acres of land. Did I say I rented it out? She said no. I said you can still farm at the age of 74? She said that she asked someone to help with planting and engaged in custodial services, and all links were to ask someone to help plant. She calculated that hosting earned more than 200 yuan more than renting out an acre of land, and she said that I earned more than 1,000 yuan, so why not? Just such a 74-year-old lady can plant her own land well under the modern socialized service system. Therefore, the path of agricultural modernization is diverse, and small farmers can also be included in the track of modern agricultural development. Here, I would like to stress in particular that the principle of voluntary compensation in accordance with the law must be adhered to in the circulation of land, and the circulation of land must not go against the will of the peasants, harm the interests of the peasants, and must not change the use of land. We have also made it clear that it is strictly forbidden to promote land circulation by setting targets and setting tasks or including the area and proportion of circulation in the performance appraisal. In other words, you can't engage in coercive orders on this issue. This is the first area of focus.

Second, we should give priority to the development of agriculture and rural areas. The "Decision" has a special section called improving the support system for strengthening agriculture and benefiting farmers and rich farmers, and makes specific arrangements for improving the investment mechanism for rural revitalization, optimizing the agricultural subsidy policy system, improving the normalized mechanism covering the rural population to prevent returning to poverty and causing poverty, improving the income guarantee mechanism for grain farmers, and establishing an inter-provincial horizontal interest compensation mechanism for grain production and marketing areas. The priority development of agriculture and rural areas is an important policy to solve the "three rural" problems, specifically the "four priorities", in the allocation of cadres to give priority to the allocation of factors, in the allocation of factors to give priority to the guarantee, in the public service to give priority to the arrangement. This is the clear requirement of the Party Central Committee, to put the "four priorities" into specific reform measures, there is still a lot of work to be done, we will pay close attention to refinement and implementation, in the allocation of cadres, the allocation of factors, capital investment and public services, etc., to promote the adoption of more effective measures, to speed up the completion of the shortcomings of agricultural and rural development.

The third is to adhere to the integrated development of urban and rural areas. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "to revitalize the countryside, we cannot talk about the countryside on the basis of the countryside, but we must strengthen the use of industry to supplement agriculture and the city to lead the countryside." It is necessary to promote new industrialization, new urbanization and comprehensive rural revitalization as a whole, establish and improve the institutional mechanism and policy system for the integrated development of urban and rural areas, comprehensively improve the level of integration of urban and rural planning, construction and governance, promote the equal exchange and two-way flow of urban and rural elements, gradually narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, and promote the common prosperity and development of urban and rural areas. In this regard, it is first necessary to speed up the urbanization of the rural migrant population, implement a system of basic services provided by household registration in the place of permanent residence, and promote the social insurance, housing security, and compulsory education of the children of the migrant population who meet the requirements to enjoy the same rights as the registered population in the place of relocation. This is a very significant policy. In this regard, it is necessary to safeguard according to law the right to contract land, the right to use homestead land, and the right to distribute collective income for peasants who have settled in the cities. What I would like to make special mention here is that the current policy allows the exploration of the method of voluntary paid withdrawal of the "three rights" of peasants, but it must be carried out prudently. Taking the withdrawal of the right to use homestead land as an example, the general policy tone is that the introduction of relevant policies in this regard must be prudent and prudent, and the wind must not blow the wind, and it will be completely bought out at a cost of tens of thousands of yuan, and the long-term interests of the peasants may not be cost-effective, and in this regard we must leave a way back for the peasants, and we must think about the peasants' long-term interests.

The right to use homestead land is very clearly defined in law, and the right to use homestead land is a right enjoyed by members of rural collective economic organizations, that is to say, non-members of the collective economic organization have no right to obtain or obtain it in disguise. All of our laws are very clear on this point, and the policy requirements are very clear. In this regard, it is necessary to strictly prohibit the use of rural homesteads to build villas and private clubs in the countryside, and strictly prohibit the construction of houses on homesteads among retired cadres and workers who have returned to their hometowns, and to guard the bottom line of the policy. The "Decision" of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made it very clear that the current policy is to allow the legally owned houses of peasant households to be revitalized and utilized through rental, shareholding, and cooperation.

Source: China.com

Editor: Chi Ruibing