Rural land contract reform: separation of ownership rights, contractors' rights and land management rights
In the early years of the reform process, a household contract responsibility system was gradually implemented, separating ownership rights from land management rights, with the former belonging to collective entities, and the latter to individual households. This measure injected huge dynamism into agricultural production across the land, and helped effectively meet the most basic needs of the people, securing a great victory for rural reform. Currently, with a trend towards industrialization and urbanization, rural labor is flocking to cities and towns in large numbers. These developments underscore the need to further separate contractors’ rights from land management rights to reflect the fact that contractors may not necessary manage the land under contract themselves. In his speech at the fifth meeting of the Central Steering Group for In-depth Reform in September 2014, Xi Jinping called for a new system that ensures separation of contractors’ rights and land management rights in addition to ownership rights – which remain collective in nature – and allows transfer of land management rights. This represents yet another major innovation in rural reform following the rollout of the household contract responsibility system.
Separation of ownership rights, contractors’ rights and land management rights contributes to rural governance, and reflects the need for production relations to evolve in response to the development of productive forces. This move attests to the viability of our basic rural governance system, clarifies land ownership rights, and better protects the rights of all parties involved. It helps promote rational land use, facilitate the building of a new agricultural management system, achieve economies of scale through multiple channels, improve land and labor productivity and resource utilization, and promote modern agricultural development.
农村承包地“三权”分置改革
改革开放之初，中国农村逐步实行了家庭联产承包责任制，将土地所有权和承包经营权分设，所有权归集体，承包经营权归农户，极大地调动了亿万农民积极性，有效解决了温饱问题，农村改革取得重大成果。当前，随着工业化、城镇化深入推进，农村劳动力大量进入城镇就业，承包主体与经营主体分离，从而使承包经营权进一步分解为相对独立的承包权和经营权。2014年9月，在中央全面深化改革领导小组第五次会议上，习近平提出要在坚持农村土地集体所有的前提下，促使承包权和经营权分离，形成所有权、承包权、经营权三权分置，经营权流转的格局。这是继家庭联产承包责任制后农村改革又一重大制度创新。
“三权分置”是农村基本经营制度的自我完善，符合生产关系适应生产力发展的客观规律，展现了农村基本经营制度的持久活力，有利于明晰土地产权关系，更好地维护农民集体、承包农户、经营主体的权益；有利于促进土地资源合理利用，构建新型农业经营体系，发展多种形式适度规模经营，提高土地产出率、劳动生产率和资源利用率，推动现代农业发展。