A Probe into the Reform of Land Requisition Com pensation System:Based on the Survey of Rural Areas in Anhui Province

2015-02-02 05:06LiuzhongCHENZhongxiangYUJialiWANG
Asian Agricultural Research 2015年1期

Liuzhong CHEN,Zhongxiang YU,,JialiWANG

1.School of Economics and Management,Anhui Agricultural University,Hefei230036,China;2.Institute of Land and Resources,Anhui Agricultural University,Hefei230036,China

1 Introduction

From the founding of New China to the beginning of reform and opening up,China's agriculture contributed 600 to 800 billion yuan to industry by the price scissors of industrial and agricultural products[1],greatly boosting the industrialization and urbanization.Since the reform and opening up,through the land price scissors,China's rural areas have contributed as much as 10 trillion yuan to urban areas,giving a strong impetus to the development of China's urbanization,but the compensation obtained by the farmers whose land is requisitioned is not more than500 billion yuan[2].At present,China's developed areas have entered the post-industrialization age,and the urbanization rate has reached 57%.According to international practice,the opportunity to implement"industry nurturing agriculture,urban areas supporting rural areas"has been available.The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and State Council timely proposed the development strategy of new urbanization,and particularly the Third Plenary Session of the18th Central Committee of the CPC made a decision to comprehensively deepen reforms and proposed the construction of a unified urban-rural land market.A unified urban-rural land market is to take urbanization of agricultural population as the core,reform of land requisition system as the key,and urbanrural integration as the goal.Based on the land requisition survey in rural areas of Anhui Province,this paper explores the direction of reform of land requisition compensation system.

2 Analysis of current land requisition compensation in the study areas

2.1 Study areasMa'anshan,Chizhou,Lu'an and Bozhou are located along the Yangtze River,in the southern,central and northern Anhui Province,respectively.Ma'anshan City implements the compensation based on comprehensive land section price of land requisition,and the other three implement land requisition compensation standards based on unified annual output value.

2.2 Survey contentBased on questionnaires,we survey 38 village cadres and 452 farmers in 19 administrative villages,11 townships(towns)in the 4 cities.The village survey content mainly involves the overview of villages,land requisition in villages,problems facing villages during the land requisition,village land requisition compensation willingness and demand,and land requisition revenue and expenditures.The farmer survey content mainly involves land requisition compensation standard and calculation method,overview of land requisition compensation,degree of satisfaction of farmers whose land is requisitioned,farmers' land requisition compensation willingness and interest appeal,and social security status of farmers whose land is requisitioned.

2.3 Analysis of current land requisition compensation in the study areas

2.3.1 Improper land requisition compensation standards and calculation methods For Ma' anshan,Chizhou,Lu'an and Bozhou,the farmers whose land is requisitioned will be compensated according to the original purpose,and the compensation standards are basically based on multiple output compensation.The multiple output compensation,tinted with planned economy in itself,does not take into account the location of land,land quality,operating conditions and other factors,not to mention the added values from land due to changes in land requisition purposes.

2.3.2 Low compensation standard.According to Notice of the People's Government of Anhui Province on the Adjustment of Land Requisition Compensation Standard,the land requisition compensation is about500000 to750000 yuan per hectare in the study area,but the actual compensation in the hands of farmers is only 480000 to 580000 yuan per hectare(see Table 1).In 2012,the per capita consumption expenditure of urban residents in Anhui Province was15011 yuan,and the per capita consumption expenditure of rural residents is 5556 yuan[3].The basic necessities of life of farmers are resolved by consumption after land requisition,so the per capita consumption expenditure of farmers whose land is requisitioned is expected to reach 10000 yuan,but the per capita land requisition compensation is less than 40000 yuan.Under normal circumstances,land requisition compensation can only maintain farmers' life for four years,so 80.80%of farmers whose land is requisitioned are not satisfied with the land requisition compensation,and the low compensation standards account for 54.55%(see Table 4).

Table 1 The land requisition compensation standards in the study areas Unit:104 yuan/ha

2.3.3 Unsound social security system.As of the end of 2012,the study areas all established the pension fund for farmers whose land is requisitioned.Men aged over 60 and women aged over 55 can receive the pension registration certificate for landless farmers after being approved,and get the pension of 360 yuan permonth according to the standard.There are still large differences in medical insurance between urban and rural areas,and the farmers still can not enjoy the urban medical insurance after land is requisitioned.The unemployment insurance is completely missing.

Table 2 The social security for the farmers whose land is requisitioned in the study areas

2.3.4 Unreasonable compensation and placement methods.According to statistics,the compensation and placement methods for farmers whose land is requisitioned in the study areas include monetary placement,social insurance placement,job placement,agricultural production placement and other forms of placement,and the degree of satisfaction is 100%,100%,23.5%,18.8%and 2.3%.There are many drawbacks in the one-time monetary compensation.(i)Due to generally low financial ability,most of farmers inefficiently use capital and save it in the bank.(ii)Due to the missing pension security,unemployment insurance and medical insurance,the landless farmers are likely to become the new urban poor.(iii)It may provide breeding ground for young farmers' lazy habits,and most of them quickly squander the land compensation,sparking a series of social problems.And because of low education level of farmers,most of them prefer cash to social security during land requisition compensation.Survey shows that 70.80%of farmers are more concerned about how much cash can be given;67.26%of farmers believe that the social security is not sound;61.28%of farmers do not want to exchange land requisition compensation for social security(see Table 3).

Table 3 The social security survey on farmers whose land is requisitioned in the study areas

2.3.5 Low satisfaction of landless farmers.According to statistics,the degree of satisfaction of landless farmers is low in the study areas,only 19.12%,and low compensation standards account for 54.55%of reasons.

Table 4 The degree of satisfaction of landless farmers in the study areas

3 Thinking based on the practice of land requisition compensation in the study areas

3.1 Compensation reform ideas and basisChina's land requisition compensation has long upheld the outdated view rather than development outlook.National Construction Land Requisition Regulationsin 1982 proposed the compensation principle that it was necessary to ensure that the landless farmers' income level did not decline.In 2010,the Ministry of Land and Resources promulgatedNotice of the Ministry of Land and Resources on Further Improving Land Management,pointing out that it was necessary to ensure that the landless farmers' standards of living did not decline during land requisition compensation.The current land requisition compensation is still based on the original land use.Zhu Daolin[4]and other scholars believe that the land requisition compensation standard based on the original land use can not reflect the value of the land location,and recommend that the land requisition compensation standard should be established in accordance with the market principles of equivalent exchange.Yu Zhongxiang[5]maintains that it is necessary to determine the land requisition price based on the planned use,thereby making farmers enjoy a fair share of the land value-added benefits.Zheng Zhenyuan and He Xuefeng[6-7]think that the land value increase occurring in the land expropriation process is due to the fact that land expropriation is actually a process of re-allocation of land resources,and such added value shall belong to the whole society.Based on the above findings of scholars,we believe that it is necessary to take the land use after requisition as the basis of land requisition compensation,rationally allocate land value-added benefits among different stakeholders,and use market economy criteria to determine the compensation standards.

3.2 Improving the compensation systemChina's land requisition compensation is mainly the compensation for land ownership and land contractual management rights,and it ignores the landless farmers' right to survival,right to development and right to ecological security[5].Under the current economic and social conditions,the sound land requisition compensation system should include the following aspects.(i)The compensation for land ownership,compensation for land use rights and compensation for crops and attachments.(ii)The compensation for right to survival,including unemployment insurance,medical insurance and pension insurance compensation.(iii)The compensation for right to land development.(a)The compensation for land value-added benefits.After land requisition,the conversion of land use produces huge land value-added benefits,belonging to the whole society,but farmers transfer land use rights and lose the survival basis.The land requisition has the biggest impact on farmers' interests[8],and farmers should receive a certain percentage of compensation.(b)The compensation for land investment interest.The farmers offer labor inputs to land,change the soil structure,and make the land resources have the characteristics of assets,so it is necessary to compensate for this.(c)The compensation for harmful or adverse effects.It is necessary to offer the compensation for the damage to the land adjacent to requisitioned land due to construction or public projects,including compensation for operating losses and other losses.(d)The compensation for interference loss.Due to land requisition,the landless farmers' original order of life is disrupted,causing additional costs or expenses and they should be compensated.It includes the compensation for education and training and compensation for placement difficulties.(iv)The compensation for the right to ecological security[8].

3.3 Reconstruction of compensation standardsThe existing land requisition compensation standards mainly include unified annual output value standard and comprehensive land section price standard,which are based on the original use of land.The two land requisition compensation standards use the planned economy way to buy land from the countryside.Due to single consideration,unsound compensation system and unreasonable distribution of value-added benefits,the compensation standards are generally low.Based on the foregoing ideas and basis of land requisition compensation,we believe that the land requisition compensation standard should improve land requisition compensation system based on considering the use of land after requisition,and offer compensation in accordance with the market economy criteria:land requisition compensation standard=compensation for land ownership+compensation for land use rights+compensation for crops and attachments+compensation for the right to survival+compensation for the right to land development+compensation for the right to ecological security.

3.4 Diverse placement of landless farmersThe one-time monetary compensation is likely to change landless farmers into the new urban poor and unstable social factors.Government should earnestly consider the long-term livelihood of the farmers whose land is requisitioned when designing the system,include the landless farmers into the social security system,and turn the one-time cash compensation into steady social security for farmers.At the same time,it is necessary to explore diverse methods of placement,such as job placement and social insurance placement.For example,during the placement of different age groups of landless farmers,we can arrange job placement or job training for young people in order to achieve the purpose of re-employment,and arrange social insurance placement for old people to spend remaining years in comfort.

4 Conclusions

Since the Third Plenary Session of the18th CPC Central Committee,the reform of land requisition system has been further accelerated,and various regions are actively exploring effective reform ways to develop agriculture and boost rural economy.The reform of land requisition system is the key to the simultaneous construction of new urbanization and"four modernizations",directly related to urbanization of transferred rural population.The key of reform of land requisition system is to restrict land requisition rights,narrow the scope of land requisition,establish a unified land market,use market rather than administrative way to ensure land property rights and interests of farmers,and improve the standard of living of landless farmers to make landless farmers truly share the fruits of economic development of the society.

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