China Focus: New land reform to give farmers more property rights

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China Focus: New land reform to give farmers more property rights

(Xinhua) 19:37, November 26, 2013

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HEFEI, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Even without his son and daughter by his side, Shen Jialiang, 50, will no longer worry about harvesting his 15 mu (1 hectare) of land in east China's Anhui Province.

Thanks to a land transfer trust promoted in the Yongqiao District of Suzhou City this October, Shen can now receive 500 kg of wheat per mu of land as a contract fee, worth more than 1,000 yuan (163 U.S. dollars), which is almost as much as his typical earnings from harvests in previous years.

CITIC Trust, a major Chinese trust company, introduced the country's first land transfer trust program in mid-October. The program manages 5,400 mu of rural land in Yongqiao District and pays contract fees to the farmers. A local company is building an agricultural park on the land.

With the income from contract fees as well as the expected value-added profits of his land, Shen can spend more time working in cities to earn more to support his family.

China's leaders put forward a multitude of reforms two weeks ago at the third plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. A reform masterplan approved at the session promises to give the country's 650 million rural residents more property rights.

A rural property market will be established, and people will be encouraged to transform their collective rights into a shareholding system. A pilot program will enable the mortgaging and transfer of homesteads.

The government will also allow the sale, lease and demutualization of rural construction land with a number of restrictions. These specific measures for land under construction will further protect rural land rights.

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