Rural Land Reform, Peasants' Rights and the Collective Economy: Three Major Issues in China Agricultural Development

The fact of continuous steady agricultural growthfor more than three decades in China shows that, the collectiveownership of rural land has flexibility and inclusiveness, itsambiguous negative impact is limited. The constantly improvedrealization form of collective ownership of rural land facilitatesland exchange, transfer and consolidation. The rural land propertyright reform aims to further improve the property right structureof collective land ownership, the most appropriate method is tomanifest the implicit land equity. Stocklization of rural land ishelpful to solve the sidelining of agriculture and land fragmentationissues, could increase the flexibility of land occupation andtransfer, the efficiency of land utilization and the competitivenessof agriculture. Stock ownership of rural land has strong stability,may be defined by warrants. Management right of rural land isflexible, may be divided and merged, and should be defined bycontracts.Rural land transfer is the rational choice of peasants andthe result of market allocation of resources, government shouldnot intervene. Government should substitute land planningmanagement system for land acquisition system, bring the decisiverole of market allocation of resources into play by establishingan open, competitive, unified and orderly land market. Innovaterealization forms for the usufructuary right of peasant housesites and peasant housing property right, set the bottom line fortransfer of housing property right, guarantee housing security ofthe peasants. Rural land transaction system serves some collectiveeconomic organizations and peasants, yet rural land protection andmanagement system serves all collective economic organizationsand peasant households, so rural land protection and managementsystem should be designed with priority.