Rural Transformation

　　A dozen shipments of corn imported fromthe United States containing unapproved and geneticallymodified ingredients were denied entryby China in December 2013. Since China reliesheavily on imported grain to guarantee its supplies，the action was considered by some marketanalysts as an unusual change. The change wasconfirmed as expected at the Central Rural WorkConference held in Beijing on December 23-24，2013. China’s new leadership hopes that thebowls of Chinese people will mainly be filled withdomestically produced grain.

　　China has long been a large agricultural nation，therefore the work concerning agriculture，countryside and farmers (the three rural issues)have always been a top priority of the ChineseGovernment. Besides ensuring domestic productionof grain， the Central Rural Work Conferencealso made decisions about the position of agriculture，safety of farm produce， land rights， developmentof rural areas and raising farmers’ income.

　　Cheng Guoqiang， a researcher with the DevelopmentResearch Center of the State Council，thinks this conference has conveyed that theChinese Government will， with the aim of boostingagricultural output to guarantee the country’sgrain security， enrich the lives of farmers andaccelerate the building of a well-off society in thecountryside. They also seek to change the situationof agriculture falling behind other industriesin economic and social development， and explorea road of agricultural modernization with Chinesecharacteristics.

　　Top priority

　　To feed China’s more than 1.3 billion peoplehas always been the top priority for theChinese Government. The Central RuralWork Conference proposed to upholdthe national grain security strategy ofmainly relying on domestic production，ensuring production capacity，importing grain in appropriate quantityand boosting agricultural scientific development.“Filling the bowls of the Chinese，in any situation， must rest soundly in ourown hands，” a statement released afterthe conference read.

　　Dang Guoying， a researcher with the RuralDevelopment Institute of the Chinese Academyof Social Sciences (CASS)， thinks that althoughChina has been stressing grain security， the conferencemore clearly emphasized taking initiativesto ensure food provisions.

　　According to Dang， currently China hasadequate provisions in terms of both variety andquantity. However， there are hidden risks in grainproduction. For reasons of technology and scale，grain production costs in China are higher than inthe United States and Brazil， where agriculture ishighly developed. If China allows massive importsof cheap foreign grain， once global grain prices，which have remained low for a long time， start torise， China will face great pressure.

　　The conference first emphasized that a redline should be drawn so as to ensure the arableland never falls below 120 million hectares. Forsoaring real estate prices， some scholars proposebreaking through the red line and curbing propertyprices by increasing land supplies incities. The conference indicated that theChinese Government will not solve theproblem of high estate prices at the costof grain security.

　　Xu Hongcai， Director of the InformationDepartment of the China Centerfor International Economic Exchanges，said strictly following the red line onarable land is the basis to ensure selfsufficiencyfor most varieties of grain.

　　By reemphasizing the red line， thegovernment intends to take preventivemeasures.

　　After guaranteeing the red line onarable land， there must be a workforce to cultivatethe land. Since the income from agricultureis much lower than urban jobs， many farmershave abandoned their land and become workersin cities， leaving some arable land idle. The conferenceput forward measures to attract moreyoung people to engage in farming as well as onhow to nurture professional farmers.

　　Dang said according to the present familycontract responsibility system， each family onlyhas a small piece of land， which can provideenough food for farmers， but will be far fromenough to develop modern agriculture. Theconference vowed to promote an economyof scale in agriculture. As some farmers go tocities and no longer engage in agriculture， theirland can be leased to the new type of agriculturalproducers. In the future， the major forcebehind agricultural production will be familyfarms， large producers， farmers’ cooperativesand leading enterprises. At present， these fourtypes of producers are in the primary stage ofdevelopment.

　　Land ownership unchanged

　　The present land system in China was establishedin 1978 when the reform and opening upstarted. Rural land is owned by collectives， and acontract responsibility system based on householdsis adopted. According to the statementfrom the conference， collective land should becontracted by rural families， specifically membersof the collective economic organizations.“No other party may replace the rural family incontracting land and no matter how the rightto contract for management is transferred，the right to contract collective land belongsto rural families，” the statement stressed. Thishas cleared up various rumors about the landreform.

　　A more pressing problem is the lack ofnecessary social security benefits after farmersmove to cities. If they lose the right to contractland， social stability will be affected. Sticking tothe family contract responsibility system canensure farmers’ rights to contract and protecttheir interests.

　　Encouraging migration

　　Among the 1.3 billion people on the Chinesemainland， over 700 million people have a ruralhousehold registration， or hukou. As productivityin rural areas has been improved， many farmershave chosen to work in cities. Due to the dualhousehold registration system between urbanand rural areas， many people still have rural hukoualthough they are working and living in cities.They make their contributions to the developmentof cities， but cannot enjoy social securitybenefits that urban residents have. The governmenthopes to solve this problem by acceleratingthe process of urbanization. The conference setup a goal to turn 100 million rural migrants intopermanent urban residents by 2020.

　　According to Li Guoxiang， a researcher withthe Rural Development Institute of the CASS，the methods through which the status of farmerscan be changed into urban residents arecategorized as “passive urbanization” and “activeurbanization.”

　　Passive urbanization is led by the governmentthrough land expropriation， changing ruralland into urban land and converting farmers intourban residents. Active urbanization involvesfarmers entering cities voluntarily. Young peoplewho work in cities but have a rural hukou are themain force of active urbanization.

　　Li thinks the most difficult task for thegovernment will be to turn 100 million villagersturned-workers permanently working in citiesinto real urban residents. If China’s urbanizationrate rises by 1 percentage point each year， therewill be 14 million new villagers-turned-workers.Within the next seven years， the number of suchworkers will be about 100 million. According tothe CASS figures， in the past five years， China’surbanization rate rose by 1.4 percentage pointseach year.

　　Li said the urbanization rate in the centraland eastern regions is low at present， and inthe future more farmers from these regionswill become workers in cities as the urbanizationrate will rise rapidly. Therefore， China muststrengthen efforts to facilitate cities in centraland western regions to turn these farmers intourban residents.