Farmers' land rights protected

China will make more efforts to guarantee the land contract management rights of farmers and improve their income growth, said officials at the Central Rural Work Conference that closed Saturday.

The two-day meeting said that farmers' rights should be fully guaranteed and that land transfers cannot be compulsory or restricted.

  Land contract management rights are rights for parties to lease collectively-owned land or land owned by the State for agriculture purposes.

"Protecting the land contract management rights of farmers will maintain continuity in agricultural production and hence ensure China's food security," Li Changping, director of the China Construction Research Center at Hebei University, told the Global Times.

The State Council arranged to confirm and register the collective ownership of land in rural areas in 2010, which is considered the basis for protecting farmers' land rights. After ownership is confirmed, the owners of the land will receive a certificate from the local government.

"Only when the ownership of land is secured can farmers' right to use the land be guaranteed," said Li.

The meeting also said the biggest obstacle standing in the way of building a moderately prosperous society is the huge gap between urban and rural development and residents' income. In the next stage, the farmers' income should grow at the same pace with or even surpass that of urban residents, participants of the meeting said.

Minister of agriculture Han Changfu said at the meeting that more work should be done on pricing of agricultural products to ensure that farmers get a fair profit while production costs rise.

The National Bureau of Statistics said in October that the per capita income of rural residents in the first three quarters of this year hit 6,778 yuan ($1087), a rise of 12.3 percent year on year, while the per capita income of urban residents was 20,190 yuan, growing by 12.9 percent compared to last year.

Li said that the income of farmers should grow at a much faster pace than that of urban residents, otherwise farmers will tend to flood into cities to work while their land may be acquired at low prices, a combination of factors that may endanger national food security.

In 2012, China's food yield hit 589.57 million tons, marking the ninth year of growth in a row.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture showed that the net profit per mu (0.067 hectares) of wheat, rice and corn was only 118 yuan, 371 yuan and 263 yuan respectively in 2011, while the most income in rural areas is generated from migrant workers.

"In addition to increasing the grain price, farmers should be organized to take a leading role in the agricultural chain," Li said.

Minister of Finance Xie Xuren vowed at a national finance work meeting on Friday that China will increase farmers' incomes by stabilizing grain prices and strengthening capital management for agricultural use.