China is facing a new task to resolve soaring disputes among farmers on land contracts as their enthusiasm for farming has been triggered by the government's beneficial policies on macro-economic control and agriculture.

In the past two years, many farmers who had migrated to cities to make more money have returned home in hopes of regaining their contracted arable land from its current residents, which has led to disputes.

Experts say the government should redefine farmers' rights on land more clearly so as to offer them financial security and promote standardization of land circulation across the country.

China has implemented a household-based system of contracted responsibility for rural production with remuneration linked to output since 1982, successfully feeding 22 percent of the world population on only seven percent of the total arable land.

The second generation of the collective leadership of China, with Deng Xiaoping at the center, promised no change to the system for 15 years. The third generation of leaders also committed to the policy's stability for 30 additional years from 1997.

However, low grain prices and heavy economic burdens drove farmers into cities since the end of last century, leaving their contracted land deserted or cultivated by others.

An investigation conducted in the village of Yihe in Jingshan County of central China's Hubei Province showed 19 percent of arable land there lay fallow while 27 percent of local farmers had even not signed contracts on land in 1997.

Efforts undertaken by the central government, including taxation reform, direct allowance to farmers and relieving their burdens, along with soaring price of grain, led to farmers making three to seven times their previous profits.

New situation emerging in rural areas complicated the relations between farmers and farmland. In Yihe Village, 98 percent of farmers now hold a different area from the land they had contracted before. As a result, 60 big families have dominated more than half of the total farmland owned by the village.

According to statistics from the province, in the first half of this year, the number of farmers who appealed to the department in charge of land and resources for resolving disputes related to land contracting rose by six times over the same period last year.

Six armed fights with more than 300 people involved in have occurred in a village of Jianli County.

A notice was issued by the General Office of the State Council in April this year, demanding each farmer involved in disputes sign normal contracts again so as to give clearer definition to area and location of land.

"Disputes stem from loose relations between farmers and land," said Tong Renzhen, party leader of Yihe Village.

Many farmers didn't want to sign the contracts in 1997, but now the situation differs, he said.

After negotiations among farmers of the village, the 60 big families eventually agreed to transfer 34 percent of land which they had been cultivating to the other 144 families who have no or little land.

(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2004)