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Better land protection

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-26 14:29

The Ministry of Land and Resources will send 16 investigative teams to 26 provinces and autonomous regions before the end of this month to look for ways to optimize the land management system.

There have been reports that 18,700 cases involving the diversion of 21,400 hectares of farmland for non-agricultural use either by villagers or village committees by way of leasing rather than selling were uncovered nationwide by the end of last year. The investigation is aimed at finding the root cause of the violations and what measures should be taken to better protect farmland from being illegally occupied, while still guaranteeing that villagers benefit from farming their land.

The central government has reiterated in a number of documents that China cannot afford to have less than 120 million hectares of farmland. The country's stock of farmland currently stands at 122 million hectares. Protecting farmland has become a top priority.

But the protection of farmland should never come at the expense of the farmers. Behind the rampant illegal use of farmland for non-agricultural projects is the reality that farmers get more from leasing their fields than growing crops on them.

Only when farmers can really benefit from farming their fields will they welcome and respect the policy of protecting arable land.

So, apart from punishing those local government leaders and real estate developers who circumvent the land approval procedures by renting land from villagers, the government must also draft policies to give villagers incentives to grow crops in their fields.

The municipal government of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, has established a farmland protection fund to give 300 yuan-400 yuan ($44.2-$57.1) to farmers for every 0.07 hectares of farmland they work on. A rural family could expect 1,000 yuan in subsidies every year in addition to the income they earn from selling their agricultural products.

We hope the investigators will talk with villagers to see if the measures adopted by Chengdu's municipal government might work on a larger scale.

Good policies must be based on down-to-earth investigations. A policy's effectiveness can only be judged by how it resolves practical problems.

It is hoped that the results of their investigation will lay a solid foundation for formulating policies to protect our farmland from being illegally occupied while simultaneously preserving the interests of farmers.