A Summary of Research on the Realization Process of "Separation of Three Rights" of Rural Land

Shi LIU

College of City Construction, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China

Abstract In order to comply with the needs of rural social and economic development, promote new industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, and realize industrial transformation, the central government clearly puts forward that the traditional "separation of two rights" mode of rural land (collectives have ownership and farmers have contracting management right) should be transformed into the "separation of three rights" mode (collectives have ownership, farmers have contracting right, and operators have management right) to solve the problems of farmers’ financing difficulties and agricultural land abandonment, promote the moderate scale operation of agriculture, and improve land use efficiency. It is found that the following points should be noted in the later stage of realizing the "separation of three rights" of rural land. Firstly, the transfer of farmland management right in the process of realizing the "separation of three rights" faces market risk, system design flaws, policy coordination failures and other problems. Secondly, the impact of implementation of "separation of three rights" on rural and social development should also be noted.

Key words Rural land, Land transfer, Separation of three rights

1 Introduction

Scholars at home and abroad have studied the "separation of three rights" (ownership, contracting and management rights) of rural land in China for a long time. Some scholars have discussed the related issues of "separation of three rights" of rural land since the 1990s. According to the search from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, there were 305 related research papers on the "separation of three rights" by domestic scholars during 1990-2017, in which there were 218 academic articles in core journals, 87 master’s and doctoral theses, 196 articles in CSSCI journals, and 93 articles in CSCD journals, and 16 articles in SCI journals. Based on related theories of economics, law and sociology, many scholars focus on the research of land system reform, the construction of land legal power, the effectiveness and effects of land laws and policies, the political, economic, and ecological effects of "separation of three rights", and the supervision and regulation of land market in the process of realizing the "separation of three rights" of rural land.

2 System design of "separation of three rights" of rural land

2.1 Concept of "separation of three rights"

2.1.1Looking back at the track of historical development from the perspective of institutional changes. Since the founding of new China, China’s rural land system has been a process of dynamic change. During the first reform, it was developed from the private mode of peasants who initially abolished the land ownership of feudal landlords to collective ownership of people’s communes. During the second reform after the reform and opening up, household contract system was develop, and the ownership and contracting management rights of rural land were separated. Li Aihong pointed out that the "separation of three rights" is an extension and development of China’s household contracted contract management system, namely realizing the separation of land ownership, contracting and management rights under the premise of insisting on collective ownership of rural land[1].

2.1.2Summarizing the experience of the grassroots from the perspective of the division of property rights. Zhang Li believes that the second separation breaks down the institutional limitations of "farmland is used by farmers" and "equal contracting of farmland" under the initial separation, and changes "farmland is used by farmers" to "farmland is used by all the people" and "equal contracting of farmland" to "scale management", further liberates "people" and "land", and builds a new land system characterized by "collective ownership, farmer contracting, and diversified management"[2].

2.1.3Implementing the central requirements from the perspective of property right relationship. "The separation of rights" means making the management right of rural land separate under the condition of collective ownership of rural land, thereby realizing the free transfer of rural land. As of the end of June 2016, farmers’ contracted land transfer area reached 30.667 million ha in China, more than one-third of household contracted land, and the proportion has reached 50% in some coastal areas[3].

2.2 Design of property right system for "separation of three rights"The system design for the "separation of three rights" of rural land is essentially the adjustment of rural land property right structure and the redistribution of land rights on the basis of adhering to China’s land ownership. Most legal scholars suggest that according to legal logic, the "separation of three rights" means establishing a new "land management right" to form a right structure with "the separation of ownership, contracting management and management rights" based on the peasants’ collective land ownership and household land contracting management rights already recognized by the existing legal system in rural areas[4-6]. For the core of "separation of three rights" of rural land, scholars have different opinions on the rational design of right scope and content after the separation of contracting and management rights. Zhu Guangxin focuses on the ownership of "farmers’ contracting rights" and the nature of "land management right"[4].

The author agrees with the second argument. Cai Lidong believes that farmers’ contracting right and land management right can be shaped into right usufruct with the "land contracting management right" as the object[5-6]. Therefore, the powers of the three rights in terms of possession, use, income, and disposal are reasonably divided as follows: the farmers’ contracting right and land management right in "the separation of three rights" are respectively to protect farmers’ land income and the right to the reasonable income, and promoting farmers’ income and the transformation and development of agriculture is functional orientation.

3 Specific implementation of "separation of three rights" of rural land

3.1 Implementation problemsThe transfer of rural land management right faces market risks. Chen Jintao believes that in the market economy environment, the right subjects of the three rights will proceed from the perspective of their own interests, and play a game to maximize their own interests, leading to imbalances in interest relations and changes in rural land use[7]. Yang Yuzhen believes that after the transfer of management right, labor productivity is improved by the scale management of rural land, and the goal of scale return is difficult to achieve[8]. With the marketing transfer of management right, under the influence of value law and supply and demand relationship, the transfer price of land management right will continue to rise, which will increase the cost of agricultural production to a certain extent, reduce the profit margin of scale management, and affect the realization of "separation of three rights". The income from cash crops is usually greater than the income from crops. According to estimates by the agricultural sector, the income from vegetables is five times that of grain, and aquaculture and flowering are seven times that of grain[9]. It is highly probable that agricultural business entities will choose large-scale production and operation of economic crops, and reduce the planting area of food crops, which will threaten China’s food security[10].

3.2 Implementation pathsIt is necessary to establish a new type of collective economic organization and explore the implementation methods of "land shareholding system" and "land mixed shareholding system" to implement land ownership. Liu Weibaietal. believe that the government-led land trust transfer is an important institutional innovation to achieve the "separation of three rights"[11]. Han Xueping believes that allowing management right to be transferred by means of shareholding, mortgage and trust with certain financial benefits can fully realize and enhance the benefits of rural land and contribute to the development of agricultural modernization[12]. Gao Shengping proposed that farmers directly set the mortgage right with the contracting management right[13]. Jiao Fumin believes that the realization of land management right mortgage is not appropriate to adopt the method of agreement discount, and can invoke the methods of auction, sale and compulsory management. The lender can take loan restructuring, orderly settlement, agreement transfer, and re-circulation of trading platform by listing to dispose collateral[14-15].

As mentioned above, there are many studies on the "separation of three rights" of rural land in China, but these research results still have the following problems. The first one is how to rationally distribute the interests of the "three rights" after the transfer of rural land. The main income and the degree of sharing with farmers after the transfer of rural land is a concern for future research. The construction of land price mechanism derived from the distribution of subject and peasant benefit is the most urgent problem to be solved in the land market and requires in-depth discussion. The second one is the research on the construction of rural land market management mechanism. Besides, there is alack of certain explanations for the implementation of various methods and steps, so that the system is difficult to land. The "separation of three rights" of rural land is a major innovation in China’s rural land system. The problem of "three rights" has been solved at the policy level, in order to improve the "three rights division" system of agricultural land in China, but in order to improve the "separation of three rights" of rural land in China, it is particularly urgent to study these issues.