The rural homestead system is a special institutional arrangement in China's rural land system because of its special acquisition methods, rights arrangements and political and social functions. Since the unified deployment of the central government in 2015 to carry out the pilot, many major issues in the reform pilot have been disputed to varying degrees, so that everyone has a kind of ambivalence: not only look forward to the reform as soon as possible to make a breakthrough in the overall situation, but also hope that its system design can take into account the actual multi-factors as much as possible, and act prudently. In the next step, what kind of steps will be taken in the reform of the rural homestead system, and how will it continue to be deepened? A series of questions that need to be thought about and answered urgently.
Basic experience of reform pilots
Since the pilot was launched in 2015, the reform of the homestead system has undergone a process of pilot establishment, linkage exploration, extension of the time limit, and expansion of the scope. The specific practices of promoting the reform of the rural homestead system vary from place to place, but in general, they focus on four aspects: improving the rights and interests of farmers and obtaining homesteads, exploring the system of paid use of homesteads, exploring the voluntary paid withdrawal mechanism of homesteads, and improving the management system of homesteads. The pilot areas have accumulated rich experience in reform practice. To sum up, it is necessary to deal with the following relationships.
First, adhere to local conditions and properly handle the relationship between standardization and diversity. Since the pilot areas are distributed in 30 provinces across the country, the level of resource endowments and economic and social development in various places varies greatly, and the situations and problems faced are also different, which requires the pilot areas to combine the top-level design of the central government with the actual conditions of various localities, and to promote reform according to local conditions from the actual situation. Judging from practice, the reform operation methods of various localities have shown obvious diversity. The diversity of reform practices in various localities should be allowed and encouraged.
The second is to adhere to the bottom line of reform and properly handle the relationship between stability and delimitation. To promote the reform of the rural homestead system, it is necessary to expand power and empower, appropriately revitalize the right to use homestead land, revitalize resource assets, and realize the rights and interests of peasants' land and property; on the other hand, we must adhere to the bottom line of reform, that is, as clearly required by the central authorities, we must not buy and sell homesteads in violation of the law, we must not use rural homesteads to build villa compounds and private halls, and we must not take the withdrawal of homestead use rights as a condition for peasants to settle in the city. Some areas have taken the lead in experimenting, taking rural collective economic organizations or members as the main body, combined with the development of rural tourism, going to the countryside to return to their hometowns to start a business and innovate, and so on, to carry out ways to revitalize and utilize idle homesteads and farmhouses and increase peasants' property income, and have initially explored some good methods. It can be seen that the realization of the property rights of peasants' homesteads can be diverse, and the key is to find the specific form of realization that is most suitable for their own development under the premise of adhering to the bottom line, which should be the focus of the next step of deepening reform.
The third is to persist in proceeding step by step and properly handle the relationship between phased tasks and long-term reform. Various localities have achieved relatively good results in ensuring the occupation and use rights of peasants' homestead land, while some of the "three rights separation", paid withdrawal, and mortgage guarantee of homestead land have basically not been involved, and some have only carried out preliminary explorations. These reforms are relatively complex and involve breaking down the issue of collective economic equality and membership closure. Deepening the reform of the rural residential land system is a long-term and gradual process, and it is necessary to grasp the key points in practical work. On the one hand, it is necessary to implement the practice experience that has been proven to be mature in practice and mobilize the enthusiasm of the peasants to participate in the reform; on the other hand, it is necessary to actively create conditions for improving the realization of the peasants' homestead power, accumulate experience, and gradually improve the top-level design according to the progress of reform practice, so as to promote the deepening of reform.
The main problems existing in the reform pilot
First, there is the issue of ideological understanding. Due to the problems of "one household and many houses" and "over-occupation and chaotic occupation" in rural residential land, the main body and interest relationship are complicated. Moreover, most of the time span is large and the bottom material resources are missing, resulting in difficulties in defining ownership. To varying degrees, there are situations in various localities where there is insufficient understanding of these basic issues in the course of reform, the understanding of cadres and the masses is not uniform, and the understanding of different regions is also different. Some local cadres are afraid of difficulties, afraid of many difficulties in reform and complicated procedures, and they want to touch on problems left over from history and are unwilling to poke the "honeycomb." On the one hand, some local masses are worried that reform is to change soup and not change medicine, and it is difficult to protect their own rights and interests; on the other hand, they have too high expectations for reform, and there is a big gap in their hearts after practice. The reform of the rural residential land system involves the adjustment of interests in many aspects, and it is inevitable for some cadres and the masses to have such and such ideological understandings, but it must also be noted that if these ideological and cognitive problems are not solved, they will directly affect the steady advancement and actual results of the reform.
The second is the issue of the basis of work. The pilot areas have invested a lot in basic work such as the registration and issuance of rural residential land rights confirmation and certification, village planning, etc., which has laid a solid foundation for the development of the pilot work, but the basic work is still weak. Due to historical reasons, the progress of the investigation and registration of the right to use residential land and farmhouses in various localities is inconsistent, the registration of the right to use the rural residential land is basically completed, and the rate of issuing certificates for the right to use is relatively high. However, the real estate registration and certification rate of real estate integration is low, and the construction of the homestead information platform is seriously lagging behind; some pilots have a low degree of integration or even conflict between relevant plans and existing plans due to the imperfect village planning and village-level land use planning, resulting in disorderly management of homestead utilization and affecting the progress of reform pilots.
The third is the issue of promoting reform. When some areas carried out pilot projects, they did not give sufficient consideration to the uncertainties and difficulties of reform, the operability of the reform plan was not strong, and the overall planning was not enough, which affected the smooth progress and actual results of the reform. Some localities have reported that due to the influence of traditional concepts, the lack of basic materials for homesteads, and problems left over from history, it is difficult to deal with historical problems such as the definition of "household" in the registration of the right to confirm homestead land. Some pilots have begun to explore paid acquisition methods due to the unsustainable distribution method of homestead land acquisition, but the main measure is to collect fees according to the cost of land consolidation fees, reclamation fees, etc., which does not reflect the actual value of land resources, and the path of reform is worth further exploration. Some places that carry out pilot projects for the withdrawal of residential land are affected by factors such as regional and economic development levels, and it is difficult to effectively raise funds to carry out the withdrawal and storage of residential land and revitalize and utilize them. Even some of the projects that have already been carried out are facing the dilemma of high cost, low return and unsustainability, and have not yet formed a long-term mechanism.
The fourth is the issue of policy coordination. The reform and management of the rural homestead system involves multiple departments such as natural resources, planning, and housing construction, and the management force is scattered, and the reform synergy has not yet been effectively formed. At the beginning of the reform, some pilot areas did not coordinate the reform of the homestead system with the reform of rural land expropriation and the entry of collective management construction land into the market, which affected the effect of the reform. There are also some pilots that have not coordinated the promotion of supporting reforms such as the rural collective property rights system, the rural financial system and the construction of rural property rights trading markets, and reform matters such as homesteads and farm house mortgage guarantees have been affected to varying degrees. Because the current household registration, social security and other systems still have the dual nature of urban and rural areas, the institutional environment of land reform is still inconsistent, so that in the reform of homestead withdrawal, it is difficult for farmers who withdraw from rural homestead rights and interests to enjoy the various benefits and guarantees of urban people equally, and this reform is also difficult to make substantial progress due to the lack of supporting institutional support. There are also some administrative regulations, departmental rules, and normative documents in some pilot areas that are inconsistent with the reform requirements.
Thinking on further deepening reform
To deepen the reform of the residential land system, we should adhere to the market-oriented reform direction and the tone of gradual reform, coordinate the supporting reforms, and make full use of the "circulation" articles, not only boldly exploring and actively promoting, but also not rushing to achieve short-term gains and going in the wrong direction.
The first is to further consolidate consensus on reform. The pilot areas undertake the task of ahead of the reform experiment, and it is necessary to strengthen the dialogue between theory and practice, accelerate the information transmission and feedback between the two, enrich the theory with practice, and guide practice with theory. The reform of the homestead system is complex and professional, and it is necessary to set up a special research team and an expert team, extensively carry out special research and comprehensive research, timely apply theoretical results to guide pilot practice, and continuously summarize and improve in practice. The broad masses of the people are the stakeholders of the reform and an important subject in promoting the reform, and we must earnestly solve the major practical problems that the masses of the people are concerned about and mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people to participate in the reform. The reform experiment is to "cross the river by feeling the stones," there are many uncertain factors, and it is inevitable that mistakes will be made; it is necessary to improve the reform fault tolerance and correction mechanism, solve the ideological misunderstandings or one-sided understandings that exist among the grass-roots cadres in a targeted manner, and further stimulate the sense of responsibility and initiative of the grass-roots cadres and masses in reform.
The second is to lay a solid foundation for reform work. To deepen the reform of the rural residential land system, the most important thing is to accelerate the basic work such as planning and preparation and confirmation of rights registration, which are closely related to the reform pilot. It is necessary to promote the preparation of plans as the premise of reform and the basis for the overall planning of village construction and development. Pay attention to the compatibility and synergy of planning, and realize the integration of village planning with various types of planning such as land use planning and construction planning. Enhance the forward-looking and scientific nature of planning and preparation, adapt to local economic and social development, rural labor transfer, etc., and reserve reasonable space for village construction and development. Although the rights of homesteads and houses are different, due to the indivisibility of homesteads and houses in physical form, the registration of real estate rights confirmation of "real estate integration" is an objective requirement for deepening the reform of the homestead system and standardizing the management of homesteads. It is necessary to speed up the work of registering and issuing certificates for the confirmation of rights in rural residential land and farmhouses that "integrates real estate and land", properly solve the problems left over from the history of residential land, increase the coverage rate of confirming rights and issuing certificates, and lay a foundation for further deepening reform.
The third is to enrich the power of homestead land and its diversified forms of realization. At present, in the peasant homestead rights system, the exercise of the right to possess and use has been relatively fully exercised, but the right to income has not yet been effectively exerted. The reason is that the scope of homestead circulation is strictly controlled, and there is no real and perfect homestead market. At the same time, the usufructuary right of homestead land does not include the right to dispose of, and with the transformation of homestead land from the function of farmers' residence security to the function of property, allowing farmers to appropriately dispose of homestead land can show their right to income. Judging from the pilot situation in various places, most localities have given farmers a certain amount of income and disposal rights to residential land under the framework of temporary adjustment and implementation of relevant laws and regulations, but the practical effect is not ideal. The reason is that most areas limit the right to dispose of homesteads to the village area, lack the support of value-added income, and it is difficult to realize the power, and the result is the invalidity of the empowerment. Therefore, to deepen the reform of the rural homestead system, in addition to giving farmers complete and sufficient power to homesteads, it is also necessary to explore ways to realize the diversified marketization of power on the basis of conforming to planning and use control.
The fourth is to effectively revitalize idle homesteads and idle farmhouses. How to effectively revitalize the huge-scale idle rural resources, at present, all parties have not yet formed a very mature plan. Some pilot areas have carried out some exploration, but in general, the pace of reform is relatively slow, and the circulation of idle farmhouses is still subject to many restrictions. To deepen the reform of the rural homestead system, it is necessary to straighten out the relationship between the collective and farmhouses and homesteads under the premise of laws and regulations, use control, and adherence to the bottom line, and expand the scope of implementation of the circulation of idle homesteads and farmhouses. In particular, rural collective economic organizations and their members are allowed to revitalize and utilize idle farmhouses and homesteads through leasing and cooperation, and give priority to the development of new rural industries and new formats.
Fifth, enhance the systemic synergy of reform. To deepen the reform of the rural residential land system, it is necessary to appropriately expand the scope of the pilot and expand the content of the pilot on the basis of combining local realities to test the effectiveness of the existing results; enhance the comprehensive support of reform, and on the basis of the "three reforms" of the overall rural land system, make overall arrangements and coordinate the promotion of the rural collective property rights system, the rural financial system, and the use of collective construction land to build rental housing pilot projects, and strengthen the systematicness and synergy of the reform; strengthen the support and synergy of relevant fields, and promote the cooperation with household registration, Social security and other policies involving farmers to settle in the city, enhance the coupling of reform; strengthen the coordination and cooperation of relevant departments, clarify the list of rights and responsibilities, establish a work promotion mechanism for discussing major events and jointly promoting pilots, and truly form a situation of joint grasping and co-management.
(The author is the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the rural discovery is transferred from: rural feelings WeChat public account)
