Rural land contract reform: separation of ownership rights, contractors' rights and land management rights

In the early years of the reform process, a household contract responsibility system was gradually implemented, separating ownership rights from land management rights, with the former belonging to collective entities, and the latter to individual households. This measure injected huge dynamism into agricultural production across the land, and helped effectively meet the most basic needs of the people, securing a great victory for rural reform. Currently, with a trend towards industrialization and urbanization, rural labor is flocking to cities and towns in large numbers. These developments underscore the need to further separate contractors’ rights from land management rights to reflect the fact that contractors may not necessary manage the land under contract themselves. In his speech at the fifth meeting of the Central Steering Group for In-depth Reform in September 2014, Xi Jinping called for a new system that ensures separation of contractors’ rights and land management rights in addition to ownership rights – which remain collective in nature – and allows transfer of land management rights. This represents yet another major innovation in rural reform following the rollout of the household contract responsibility system.

Separation of ownership rights, contractors’ rights and land management rights contributes to rural governance, and reflects the need for production relations to evolve in response to the development of productive forces. This move attests to the viability of our basic rural governance system, clarifies land ownership rights, and better protects the rights of all parties involved. It helps promote rational land use, facilitate the building of a new agricultural management system, achieve economies of scale through multiple channels, improve land and labor productivity and resource utilization, and promote modern agricultural development.

農(nóng)村承包地“三權(quán)”分置改革

改革開放之初，中國農(nóng)村逐步實(shí)行了家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制，將土地所有權(quán)和承包經(jīng)營權(quán)分設(shè)，所有權(quán)歸集體，承包經(jīng)營權(quán)歸農(nóng)戶，極大地調(diào)動了億萬農(nóng)民積極性，有效解決了溫飽問題，農(nóng)村改革取得重大成果。當(dāng)前，隨著工業(yè)化、城鎮(zhèn)化深入推進(jìn)，農(nóng)村勞動力大量進(jìn)入城鎮(zhèn)就業(yè)，承包主體與經(jīng)營主體分離，從而使承包經(jīng)營權(quán)進(jìn)一步分解為相對獨(dú)立的承包權(quán)和經(jīng)營權(quán)。2014年9月，在中央全面深化改革領(lǐng)導(dǎo)小組第五次會議上，習(xí)近平提出要在堅(jiān)持農(nóng)村土地集體所有的前提下，促使承包權(quán)和經(jīng)營權(quán)分離，形成所有權(quán)、承包權(quán)、經(jīng)營權(quán)三權(quán)分置，經(jīng)營權(quán)流轉(zhuǎn)的格局。這是繼家庭聯(lián)產(chǎn)承包責(zé)任制后農(nóng)村改革又一重大制度創(chuàng)新。

“三權(quán)分置”是農(nóng)村基本經(jīng)營制度的自我完善，符合生產(chǎn)關(guān)系適應(yīng)生產(chǎn)力發(fā)展的客觀規(guī)律，展現(xiàn)了農(nóng)村基本經(jīng)營制度的持久活力，有利于明晰土地產(chǎn)權(quán)關(guān)系，更好地維護(hù)農(nóng)民集體、承包農(nóng)戶、經(jīng)營主體的權(quán)益；有利于促進(jìn)土地資源合理利用，構(gòu)建新型農(nóng)業(yè)經(jīng)營體系，發(fā)展多種形式適度規(guī)模經(jīng)營，提高土地產(chǎn)出率、勞動生產(chǎn)率和資源利用率，推動現(xiàn)代農(nóng)業(yè)發(fā)展。