Main Problems and Government Action in Rural Land Circulation of China

On the basis of introducing and defining the concept of rural land circulation,this paper discussed the inevitability of rural land circulation in China and analyzed the main problems in the rural land circulation. Finally,it came up with some pertinent recommendations for the government in the rural land circulation in China,including formulating the relevant administrative rules and regulations,improving the rural land circulation policy system,improving the rural social security system and relieving the worry of farmers in land circulation,energetically promoting institutional construction,and actively cultivating rural land circulation market.

Study on the Role of Land Circulation in Promoting Poverty Reduction through Industrial Development——A Case Study of Mopi Village,Xinping County,Yunnan Province

In recent years,under the stimulation of the national policy and the land circulation policy,the villages and towns have begun to guide the farmers to carry on the land circulation in an orderly way,combine the targeted poverty alleviation with the development of modern agriculture,and drive the registered households to participate in the modern agricultural industry and achieve the goal of getting rid of poverty and getting rich while realizing the transformation and upgrading of agriculture. The transfer of land management right can drive the local employment and the poverty reduction through industrial development is implemented. Taking Mopi Village in Xinping County as an example,this paper analyzes the main methods and effects of the transfer of land management right in this village in promoting poverty reduction through industrial development,and puts forward the existing problems and suggestions.

How farmers’non-agricultural employment affects rural land circulation in China?

To clarify the impact of non-agricultural employment on rural land circulation in China,we built logit models using the Chinese Household Income Project 2013 dataset,which includes 18,948 household samples over 15 provinces,126 cities and 234 counties of China in 2013.We use the proportion of non-agricultural income,the proportion of non-agricultural laborers and non-agricultural fixed operating assets to reflect the degree of the households’dependence on agriculture,the degree of the households’laborers committed to non-agricultural employment and the stability of non-agricultural employment,respectively.The results show that the stability of non-agricultural employment is an important reason for farmers to transfer out their land,and an increase in non-agricultural income is the fundamental reason.The proportion of non-agricultural assets has the greatest impact on the decision to transfer land,followed by the proportion of non-agricultural income.Per unit increase in the non-agricultural income ratio has a stronger effect on the transfer-out decision than it does on the transfer-in decision,which is a 0.09 increase of the probability of transfer-out the land and a 0.07 decrease of the probability of transfer-in the land.In terms of regional differences,when considering the impact of non-agricultural employment on the land transfer-out decision,the impacts of non-agricultural income and labor force are the greatest in the Central region.The impact of non-agricultural assets is the greatest in the Eastern region.For the Eastern region,the decision to transfer out land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets and the non-agricultural labor force,and the decision to transfer in land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets.In the Central and Western regions,the decision to transfer out land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets,non-agricultural income and the non-agricultural labor force,in that order.The decision to transfer in land in the Central region is not significantly affected by non-agricultural employment.The decision to transfer in land in the Western region is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets,non-agricultural labor force and non-agricultural income,in that order.We note that non-agricultural assets have a prominent impact on land transfer,which shows that the stability of non-agricultural employment has an important impact on land transfer decision-making.Vocational training for rural labor forces may be an effective means to promote stable non-agricultural employment and simultaneously facilitate rural land circulation,especially in Central and Western China.

Spatiotemporal changes in Chinese land circulation between 2003 and 2013

Land circulation is an important measure that can be utilized to enable agricultural management at a moderate scale.It is therefore imperative to explore spatiotemporal changes in land circulation and the factors that drive these variations in order to maintain and increase the vitality of the land rental market.An initial analysis of spatiotemporal patterns in land circulation is presented in this study on the basis of data from 169,511 farm households between 2003 and 2013.The rural fixed observation point system advocated by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture was utilized for this analysis,and Heckman two-stage models were developed and estimated in order to identify the drivers of regional differences in land circulation at the national scale and at the levels of different terrains.The results of this study show that the rate of land circulation in China rose from 15.09%to 25.1%over the course of the study period,an average rate of 0.8%.More specifically,data show that the rate of land circulation in the south of China has been higher than in the north,that the average land rental payment was 4256.13 yuan per ha,and that 55.05%of households did not pay such a fee during the land circulation process.In contrast,the average rent obtained was 3648.45 yuan per ha nationally even though 52.63%of households did not obtain any payments from their tenants.The results show that land quality,geographic location,transaction costs,and household characteristics have significantly affected land circulation in different regions of China.Specifically,the marginal effects of land quality and geographic location were larger in the plain regions,while transaction cost was the key factor influencing land circulation in the hilly and mountainous regions.The signal identified in this study,rent-free land circulation,is indicative of a mismatch that has led to the marginalization of mountainous regions and higher transaction costs that have reduced the potential value of land resources.Thus,as the opportunity cost of farming continues to rise across China,the depreciation of land assets will become irreversible and the phenomenon of land abandonment will become increasingly prevalent in hilly and mountainous regions in the future.The transaction costs associated with the land rental market should be reduced to mitigate these effects by establishing land circulation intermediaries at the township level,and the critical issues of land abandonment and poverty reduction in hilly and mountainous regions should arouse more attention.

Laws,Defects and Countermeasures on the Circulation of Rural Housing Land——From the Perspective of Farmer Rights Protection

The thesis combs the existing legal provisions about rural housing land from the perspectives of use restriction,means restriction,subject restriction and mortgage prohibition,and finds out their defects,namely,weakening real right,confused knowledge about the integration of house property and land property,the loophole in Land Administration Law,the bans on the rural residents' purchase of housing land and so on.Then the thesis expounds the harms of restricting the circulation of housing land,for example,it will result in underground transaction of housing lands;lead to untenanted lands and waste of resources;bring about financing difficulty for peasants;do harm to the interest of land owners(rural collective economic organizations) and so on.The thesis further proposes to establish the legal lease model to solve the problems in the circulation of housing lands,specifically explains the definition of the legal lease model of housing lands,illustrates its detailed information from the aspects of object,subject and content and elaborates a series of problems involving,how to distribute the rent of housing lands,as well as how to perfect relevant procedures and formalities in the credit circulation of housing lands so as to realize the legitimate and effective circulation of rural housing lands and protect the peasants' interests.

Spatial and Temporal Variability of Farm Size in China in Context of Rapid Urbanization

During the last 30 years, China has witnessed rapid economic growth and dramatic urbanization, with about 1.2 x 107 rural people migrating annually into urban areas. Meanwhile, especially since 1995, the rural population has been declining, which is closely linked to land circulation and the increase in farm size in many villages. Increasing scale of farming operations is often regarded as a key to avoiding the abandonment of farmland and to increasing the income of rural farmers. However, until now, there has been little research on the spatial and temporal variability of farm size at the national level in China. Using data from the national agricultural cen- sus and rural household surveys, this study examines the characteristics of land use circulation and the consequent changes in the area of farmland per household. The results show that： 1） 12.2% of rural households were involved in land circulation at the national level. The highest amounts of land circulation have occurred in those provinces where the farmland per capita is more than 0.2 ha or less than 0.1 ha; 2） over 80% of households operate less than 0.6 ha of farmland; 3） the proportion of mid-sized farms （between 0.2 ha and 0.6 ha per household） has decreased while the smallest and the largest farms have increased. This bears some similarity with the phenomenon known as the ＇disappearing middle＇, referring to the changes in farm size. This study establishes a framework for interpreting the factors affecting the changes in farm size in China, which include two promoting factors （urbanization and agriculture） and four hindering fac- tors （agricultual land system, household registration, stable clan system, and farmland loss）.

Numerical study of the effects of local atmospheric circulations on a pollution event over Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, China

Currently, the Chinese central government is considering plans to build a trilateral economic sphere in the Bohai Bay area, including Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei（BTH）, where haze pollution frequently occurs. To achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to understand the physical mechanism of the haze pollution there. Therefore, the pollutant transport mechanisms of a haze event over the BTH region from 23 to 24 September 2011 were studied using the Weather Research and Forecasting model and the FLEXible-PARTicle dispersion model to understand the effects of the local atmospheric circulations and atmospheric boundary layer structure. Results suggested that the penetration by sea-breeze could strengthen the vertical dispersion by lifting up the planetary boundary layer height（PBLH） and carry the local pollutants to the downstream areas; in the early night, two elevated pollution layers（EPLs） may be generated over the mountain areas： the pollutants in the upper EPL at the altitude of 2–2.5 km were favored to disperse by long-range transport, while the lower EPL at the altitude of 1 km may serve as a reservoir, and the pollutants there could be transported downward and contribute to the surface air pollution.The intensity of the sea–land and mountain–valley breeze circulations played an important role in the vertical transport and distribution of pollutants. It was also found that the diurnal evolution of the PBLH is important for the vertical dispersion of the pollutants,which is strongly affected by the local atmospheric circulations and the distribution of urban areas.