Key Progress of Rural Land Research in China from 2000 to 2019

Zizhou CHEN

Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 332200, China

Abstract Land is the foundation of human survival and the cornerstone of human development. China is a developing country with a large population and also a large agricultural country, and the issue of rural land has always been a strategic issue of great significance in the process of economic and social development. This paper introduces the key progress of rural land research in China from 2000 to 2019 in terms of three aspects: agricultural land protection, land system and land consolidation. It is found that the research content of rural land in China has experienced a very obvious transition and improvement. The understanding of specific research content continues to expand with the time. This paper studies and analyzes the existing problems of rural land research in China, and puts forward the research direction of rural land problems in China.

Key words Rural Land, Literature review, China

1 Introduction

The issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers has always been one of the focuses of the work of the Party and the government, and the key to solving the problem of agriculture, rural areas and farmers is to solve the problem of rural land. Land problem is the most basic problem of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers". The study of rural land problem is related to agricultural development, the increase of farmers’ income, the development of rural economy and the long-term stable and coordinated development of China’s economy. Land carries social functions such as satisfying farmers’ employment, providing farmers with income, providing farmers with social security and ensuring rural stability and prosperity[1].

From 2000 to 2019, China made remarkable achievements in urbanization and modernization. At the same time, China’s rural land research has also developed vigorously. With the development of economy and society and the promotion of new urbanization, land is an important carrying space of economic activities and factor of production, and people’s understanding of land is deepening. The connotation, attribute, value and function of rural land are constantly enriched and expanded with the diversified needs of economic and social development[2]. In recent years, a large number of research achievements in the field of rural land have emerged. Using "rural land" as the title or "land", "land use" as key words, we searched the literature from 2000 to 2019 on CNKI, and obtained a total of 140 783 articles, including 95 180 periodical articles, 3 845 conference papers, 32 045 master’s and doctor’s theses and 2 103 newspaper articles.

This paper comprehensively analyzes the achievements of the research on rural land from 2000 to 2019, and sorts out the changing trends and characteristics of the key research contents of rural land in China during this period. The institutional and environmental reasons for these changes are analyzed. This paper preliminarily puts forward the development trend of rural land research, in order to provide reference for the research related to land science and land management work.

2 Progress of rural land research

2.1 Study on the protection of agricultural land

2.1.1Cultivated land protection. The protection of cultivated land has always been a long-term focus of scholars at home and abroad. The previous research on cultivated land protection mainly focused on the change of cultivated land, such as analyzing the reasons for the reduction of cultivated land area, discussing the relationship between the quantity of cultivated land resources and economic development[3]. In the medium term, it was gradually changed to the establishment of a diversified cultivated land protection system, mainly involving legal and policy supervision means, as well as the establishment of cultivated land protection incentive mechanism, early warning system, social restraint mechanism and so on. The later research focused on the economic compensation mechanism of cultivated land protection. Some scholars have pointed out that the implementation effect of cultivated land protection model with economic incentive as the core is the best[4]. Therefore, we can calculate the reasonable compensation interval of cultivated land protection by dividing the types of cultivated land protection externalities, defining the donor and recipient, measuring the cultivated land protection externalities and so on, and explore the effective economic compensation mechanism of cultivated land protection.

2.1.2Study on multi-function of agricultural land. At the beginning of the study on the multi-function of agricultural land, it focused on the landscape function and ecological protection function of farmland. The focus in the medium term was to explore the low-carbon use of agricultural land and the ecological protection of agricultural land, strengthen the comprehensive improvement of polluted cultivated land, and attach importance to the legislation of land pollution prevention and control[5]. In the later stage, it paid attention to the social security and ecological conservation function of agricultural land. Improving the social security function of agricultural land is conducive to maintaining regional social stability and improving the living standards of rural areas. It can reduce the unemployment rate, enhance the ecological function of agricultural land, promote the balance and stability of farmland ecosystem, improve the quality and efficiency of agricultural products, and help to achieve regional sustainable development[6].

2.1.3Quality improvement and large-scale management of agricultural land. With regard to the improvement of agricultural land quality, the early stage focused on the application of soil health assessment, agricultural land yield calculation, agricultural land classification and other achievements in the spatial layout of urban expanded land, and so on. In the medium term, the focus was on improving the quality of cultivated land and grain production capacity and improving the efficiency of cultivated land use. In the later stage, it focused on the intensive level of cultivated land and the evaluation of cultivated land fertility, and actively promotes the construction of high-standard basic farmland.

With regard to the scale operation of agricultural land, it focused on the study on willingness of scale operation of agricultural land and its influencing factors in the early stage. The mid-term study focused on the relationship between farmland operation scale and specialization, concurrent business and agricultural performance, as well as the discussion on the moderate scale of farmland management. In the later stage, the focus of attention was shifted to the role of large-scale management of agricultural land in alleviating the contradiction between the protection of cultivated land and the expansion of construction land[7].

The above studies show that the research on agricultural land protection in China shows the development trend of "revealing the changing trend-strengthening the comprehensive protection-promoting the protection mechanism". Scholars’ focus on agricultural land research is constantly deepening and refining with the passage of time. The research on cultivated land protection has gradually changed from a simple analysis of cultivated land quantity change to discussing the establishment of a perfect cultivated land protection system, and then to putting forward targeted protection and promotion measures. To a certain extent, this reflects the severe situation of agricultural land protection, especially cultivated land protection in China in recent years.

2.2 Study on land system

2.2.1Land property rights. The study of land property rights focuses on the analysis of land system and rural land rights and interests in the context of Property Law. Since 2010, the study of land property rights has focused on land development rights and the confirmation of rural land rights. After 2014, the research on rural land property rights focused on the homestead system. The study of homestead system pays attention to the regional differences of homestead replacement mode, the internal contradictions of legal system and the obstacles to property rights capitalization from the perspective of transaction costs[8].

2.2.2Land expropriation. In the aspect of land expropriation, the previous research focused on the defects of China’s land expropriation system, such as imperfect land expropriation procedures, unreasonable land expropriation compensation system, low satisfaction with the resettlement of land-expropriated farmers, and so on. It put forward some reasonable policy suggestions, such as improving the land market, enhancing farmers’ participation in the process of land expropriation, and strengthening the supervision of resettlement and performance evaluation. After 2010, it focused on the market-oriented reform of land expropriation system. Some scholars have proposed that the reasonable expropriation compensation price of agricultural land should include the economic value, social security value and land development right value of agricultural land. In the later stage, it gradually paid attention to the construction of legal mechanism and the protection of farmers’ rights and interests in the reform of land expropriation system.

2.2.3Land transfer. In the aspect of land transfer research, the initial stage focused on the analysis of the internal mechanism and driving force of agricultural land transfer. Society, economy and policy system are the main factors affecting rural-urban land conversion, while institutional income is the main factor driving the local governments in economically developed areas to promote the process of non-agricultural land conversion. The mid-term study was gradually transferred to the reform of agricultural land and construction land transfer system. The study points out that we should take the protection of farmers’ interests as the basic criterion, help to improve the income level of farmers after transfer, and further improve the legal system to reduce the uncertainty of the land system. In the later period, scholars made an in-depth analysis of the transfer of rural land contractual management rights and the withdrawal mechanism of rural homestead.

The above study shows that the study of rural land system basically presents a gradual development trend of "surface research-deep analysis-systematic solution". It reflects that in the period of economic and social transformation and development, there are defects and drawbacks in the existing land system, and the rights and interests of farmers cannot be effectively protected. Scholars have put forward corresponding reform suggestions and measures from the aspects of the reform of land expropriation system, the protection of farmers’ land rights and interests, and the building of a unified urban and rural construction land market[9]. In the future, the study of rural land system will still focus on the construction of modern land property rights system, the reform of land expropriation and land transfer system, the protection of farmers’ land rights and interests, and the further improvement of the method of separation of "three rights", in order to speed up the construction of a unified construction land market in urban and rural areas.

2.3 Study on land consolidation

2.3.1Comprehensive consolidation of rural land. In the early stage, the research on rural land consolidation focused on the analysis of the current situation of farmers’ participation in land consolidation, and explores the dominant position of farmers in the planning and implementation of rural land consolidation, as well as the evaluation of land consolidation potential and social benefits in rural residential areas. In the middle period, it focused on the zoning study of rural residential area consolidation and the evaluation of agricultural land consolidation potential, and it further deepened the understanding of the necessity of ecological land consolidation and the technical path to realization. In the later stage, it focused on the calculation methods of land consolidation potential and the layout and optimization of rural settlements, gradually paid attention to the analysis of the causes and laws of rural decline from the micro-scale, and placed emphasis on the research of the construction of high-standard basic farmland.

2.3.2Land reclamation and ecological restoration. Land reclamation and ecological restoration not only pay attention to the strategic research of land consolidation, but also pay attention to how to innovate the techniques and methods of land consolidation and accelerate the research of land reclamation. Technology leads the trend of development, and technology also plays a great role in the regulation of agricultural land. The function of GIS software is used to provide calculation methods and processes for the consolidation project. The data are analyzed and processed, and a design plan is formulated to provide reference for land regulation[10]. Since 2014, attention has been paid to the standardization and institutionalization of land consolidation, and agricultural land reclamation is the main aspect of the research. Some scholars have put forward a new term "surface stripping and reuse", which means that the topsoil is moved to a fixed site for storage, then taken out when needed, and moved to abandoned land for reclamation and reuse. This can effectively solve the problem of sudden deficiency in land consolidation.

According to the above research, it can be found that the research on rural land consolidation has shown the development path of "problem analysis-governance measures-theoretical and technological innovation" in recent years. This reflects the continuous mature and perfect development process of China’s rural land consolidation research from problem-oriented to technology-oriented in the past 20 years.

In the future, the study of land consolidation will continue to focus on promoting technological and theoretical innovation, and using advanced and scientific theories, technologies and methods to guide the development of land consolidation, reclamation and restoration[11]. It will pay more and more attention to the ecological effects and farmers’ dominant position in the work and research of land consolidation.

3 Literature review

Through the study of the development and changes of the main research contents of rural land in China in the past 20 years, it can be found that rural land research has experienced a very obvious transition and improvement in recent years, and the understanding of specific research content continues to expand with the time[12-13]. The perspective of the study has gradually changed from single to pluralistic, and the object of study has gradually changed from a simple overview to a systematic mechanism analysis. The technical method of the research has gradually changed from qualitative description analysis to quantitative scientific evaluation. The measure studied has gradually changed from the analysis of practical problems to relying on advanced scientific and theoretical and technological means, and then to establishing a comprehensive and systematic mechanism in line with China’s national conditions. This also shows the endogenous expansion of rural land science research, which is in line with the space-time theory of land science development.

In the future, under the strategic guidance of the major historical tasks at the present stage, such as accelerating the reform of the ecological civilization system and building a beautiful China, rural land research will focus on the supply-side structural reform of rural land in the new historical period of building a well-off society in an all-round way, perfecting basic theories, innovating technical methods and systems and mechanisms, to ensure the role of land in the optimal resource allocation and basic support for national economic and social development.