Rural Land Rights in China: Evolution and Case Studies

Constant divisions of rural land rights and contract renegotiations are the hallmark of China’s collective ownership system.Rural land ownership,property and operation systems in China have experienced four stages of evolution:(i)The People’s Communes,which served administrative and economic functions,exercised integrated collective land ownership,property,and operation rights.(ii)Under the system of“threetier ownership with production teams as basic accounting units,”production teams exercised the ownership right over land plots with greater autonomy and were responsible for organizing farm work.(iii)The household contract system has entitled farmers to claim surplus products and turned farm households into the basic unit of agricultural production.Subsequently,the reform of collective ownership has further enhanced farmers’contract rights and separated their operation rights from contract rights.The separation of rural land ownership,contract and operation rights marks a top-down design of the structure of China’s rural land rights after the collective ownership system and the reform of household contract system.By recognizing separate contract and operation rights without changing collective ownership,the separation aims to protect rural land contract and operation rights in accordance with the law.As in the four case studies,Chongzhou,Songjiang,Meitan and Liupanshui have experienced a restructuring of collective ownership,contract and operation rights.Their experience foretells complexities in the future evolution of rural land rights in China.

Impacts of Changes in Structure of Rural Land Property Rights on Agricultural Performance

In the reform process of the rural land property rights system,the incentive mechanism of the rural land property rights system has a crucial impact on the production activities of rural economic entities.Due to the different rights structures of the property rights system in different social and economic development stages,the land rights and interests enjoyed by rural economic subjects are different,and the degree of incentives for farmers is also different.This difference in incentives affects farmers investment in agricultural production factors,which in turn affects agricultural performance.This paper analyzes the incentive impacts of the structure of rural land property rights on the changes of farmers land rights and agricultural performance since the founding of the People s Republic of China,in order to further deepen the reform of the land system,protect the rights and interests of farmers,promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas,and explore the realization form and operation mechanism of the rural collective land system in the new era.

Reform Paths of Rural Land Property Rights System in the Context of Agricultural Modernization

The reform of rural land property rights system can promote large-scale and intensive agricultural production,improve the quality of laborers,improve agricultural production efficiency,increase farmers'income,and effectively promote the development of agricultural modernization.In the context of the reform of the"separation of three powers",the rural land property rights system still has problems in terms of ownership,use rights,disposal rights,and income rights,which affect the healthy development of agricultural modernization.In this situation,it is necessary to further clarify the subject of rural land ownership,thoroughly improve the right to use rural land,vigorously improve the right to dispose of rural land,effectively protect the right to benefit from rural land,and deeply promote the reform of the rural land property rights system in order to effectively promote the development of agricultural modernization.

The Transfer of Land Contractual Management Rights in Ethnic Village--A Case Study of Ya'ergou Village in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Based on field survey in Ya'ergou Village,Yuanzhou District,Guyuan City,the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,we analyze the status quo of the transfer of land contractual management rights in this village,and study the basic information,form,characteristics,and problems concerning the transfer of land contractual management rights in this nationality village.Then corresponding countermeasures are put forward for promoting the transfer of land contractual management rights in ethnic village as follows:strengthening the publicity of the policy in order to improve farmers' ideological understanding;raising the rent in order to promote the transfer of the land contractual management rights;diverting the governmental investment to the talented people within village;consolidating management and resolving disputes in the transfer timely and effectively.

The role of land as the central piece to sustainable food systems:Lessons learned from Portugal national food-related policies

This paper discusses to what extent land is considered in food-related policies from a systemic perspective.Based on existing literature and international agendas priorities,we argue that access to and preservation of land for food along the food chain play a major role in sustainable food systems.To further explore this argument,we address the following question:Where does land stand in sectorial and national food-related policies?The mul-tiple dimensions and implications of food systems and the international agenda’s priorities namely the“Right to adequate Food”,“Food Sovereignty”and the“Right to Land”,were used as our conceptual framework.To work out how land is being considered in food sectorial policies,both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to examine ten Portuguese national food-related policies.Results are showing a lack of consideration for land access and land preservation,needed all along the food chain to build a national sustainable food system.On the other hand,there is a gap between current grassroots priorities international agendas and food-related national policies.Such a situation strongly suggests that building a sustainable food system needs a clear food territorial perspective,still neglected,and shifting from sectorial policies towards a more integrated food system approach,that will include land as a central piece.

Analysis on Farmers' Land Right Protection

Land is the fundamental income sources of farmers. However, farmers stay at disadvantaged statge in the political, economic and social aspects. Their land is exploited and occupied, which facilitates the rapid development of economy, as well as brings the gap between the poor and the rich and the inharmonious disputes. The necessity for protecting the land right of farmers under the new situation is expounded, covering the necessity of carrying out the relevant agricultural policies; the necessity of improving rural economic status and narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas; the necessity of reducing land disputes and constructing harmonious society. The violation of farmers' land rights is analyzed from two aspects. The first one is the violation of farmers' land right in land tenure section, which includes the lack of ecological compensation system the lack of contract operation right; the second one is the violation of farmers' land right in land transfer section, including the absence of land requisition system, substandard land contract and land transfer and the limitation of house stead circulation; the third one is the vacant of land development right affects farmers' share of enjoying the added value of land. The countermeasures for protecting farmers' land rights are put forward. The first one is clarify land property; the second one is normalize and perfect land requisition system; the third one is appropriately loosen rural land transfer policies; the fourth one is establish ecological compensation and land development right compensation system.

Analysis of the Price of Development Right of Agricultural Land in China

According to the viewpoints of predecessors, we define the signification of development right of agricultural land and connotation of the price of development right of agricultural land as follows: the development right of agricultural land is to change the former use nature of agricultural land, so as to become the right of construction use land; the price of development right of agricultural land refers to the price that is difference between the price of construction use land, and summation of the price of former agricultural land, the expense of developing agricultural land, the expense of management, and profit, after the agricultural land is transformed into non-agricultural construction use land. By using the principle of economics of land, this paper expounds the generation mechanism of the price of development right of agricultural land, namely the diversity of agricultural land use and the change of demand and supply of development right of agricultural land. The influencing factors of the development right of agricultural land are analyzed, and there are mainly the price of agricultural land, the price of construction use land, the contradiction of demand and supply of urban land, land use, and agricultural land.

Application and Thinking of Right Species for Right Land in Urban Plant Landscaping

With the acceleration of eco-garden city construction,tree resources have been increasingly applied in landscape construction.Combining with the authors' work experience,plant landscaping cases in domestic and foreign cities,this paper analyzed the concept of right species for right land and problems in plant landscaping,and took specific cases to explore the application of right species for right land,in order to provide references for the reasonable utilization of indigenous tree resources.

Developing the Commons: Models of Rural Land Trust in China

In recent years,experiments on land trusts(xin tuo)have been made in the rural areas of China.To better understand such practice,this research identifies four case studies based on their operational structures and divides them into government-led models and market-led models.The government-led models include the Yiyang Model in Hunan Province,and the Longgang Model in Hubei Province.The market-led models include the Suzhou Model in Anhui Province,and the Golden Field Series Model in Jiangsu Province.This paper compares their profit-sharing mechanisms with specific attention given to the incentives for the villagers.Findings suggest that the villagers’profits are limited in both models.The government-led models concern less about profits but more on reusing the desolated agricultural land.The market-led models are profit-driven therefore tend to exclude the villagers from the profit-sharing process.

Does Security of Land Operational Rights Matter for the Improvement of Agricultural Production Efficiency under the Collective Ownership in China?

Under the"separation of three rights"policy,the impact of security of land operationalrights on agricultural production efficiency has attracted much attention in recentyears.Data envelopment analysis and mediation effect analysis were applied to 888family farms run by new-type agricultural operators from Songjiang to identify themechanism of the effect of land operational rights security on agricultural productionefficiency through long-term investment.The results show that greater security of landoperational rights generally increased agricultural production efficiency.Approximately37.94 percent of the impact could be explained by long-term investment.The resultsalso indicate that significant heterogeneity exists in the effect of land operational rightssecurity on agricultural production efficiency at various levels of the family farms'efficiency distributions.lt is suggested that government should legalize land operationalrights and give them a status equal to those of households'contractual rights and landownership rights in China's future land tenure reform.

SECURITY OF USE RIGHT FOR FOREST LAND AND COMMUNITY FORESTRY-A Case Study of the CompensatedTransfer of Use Right over CollectiveWasteland in Yao'an County

1Background1.1BasicsituationofstudysiteYao'ancountyislocatedinthenorthwesternpartofcentralYunnanplateau.ItisoneoftheimportantgrainProductionbasecountiesofYunnanProvince.HanandYiarethemainethnicgroupsinthisprovince.BanliuAdministrativeVillagebelongsto...

Rural Women Fight for Their Right to Land

TONG Sufang never expected that she would lose her land ongetting married.Tong,27,was married in 1992 to a man inanother village.The couple moved to the city to find jobs,leavingtheir land to their parents.Earlier this year,when the village whereTong lived before her marriage distributed another round ofcontracted land,Tong was not listed as a candidate for a share ofthe village soil.The reason:Tong is married and does not live inthe village any more,although she has never moved hermembership to her husband’s village and is still legally a memberof the village of her childhood. The same thing happened to Hou Cunli,who moved to

Legal Protection from Physical Form to Form of Value: On the Transformation of China's Land Right System

The transformation of China’S land rightsystem comprises the following threeperiods:(1)The planned economy period(1949.1978).Public land ownership

Legal considerations for urban underground space development in Malaysia

In 2008,the Malaysia land code,named the National Land Code 1965(NLC 1965),was amended to add Part Five(A)to deal with the disposal of underground space.In addition,the Circular of the Director General of Lands and Mines No.1/2008 was issued to assist the application of Part Five(A)of the NLC 1965.However,the legislation is still questiona ble and has instigated many arguments among numerous actors.Therefore,this research was undertaken to examine legal considerations for the development of underground space.The focus is on four legal considerations,namely underground space ownership,the bundle of rights,depth,and underground space utilization.Rooted in qualitative methods,interviews were conducted with respondents involved in the development of under-ground space in Malaysia.The obtained data were then analyzed descriptively.The findings diferentiated the rights of landowners for surface land and underground space,and their liability for damages and the depth.It was indicated that the current legislation in Malaysia,namely Part Five(A)of the NLC 1965 and the Circular of the Director General of Lands and Mines No.1/2008,is adequate to facilitate the development of underground space in terms of legal considerations.However,to further facilitate the development of underground land in the future,based on the research,four enhancements are recommended for legal considera tions pertaining to the development of underground space in M alaysia.

Exploration on Planning Methods for Rural Communities in the Local Economic and Institutional Contexts

This paper reviews the wave of rural community construction, compares the urban and rural areas on the aspects of land property right, financing channels, construction management procedures, and the user-builder difference, and examines the unique characteristics of rural communities. On the basis of that, it proposes some planning methods for the rural community planning and construction, such as encouraging public participation, conducting public facility-oriented planning, and providing house-design menu, and further puts forward some supporting measures and policies.