Agricultural and rural development in China during the past four decades: an introduction

The past four decades have witnessed unprecedented economic growth and rapidly rising food demand in China. This paper provides an introduction to readers with useful information summarising the development of China’s agricultural sector and the transformation of its rural economy over the 40 years of economic reform. It is, however, impossible to cover all aspects of this recent and rich history in a single journal special issue. Nevertheless, we are of the view that these papers address the most fundamentally important and insightful topics including: land reform and rural development; technology progress and productivity growth; changing food consumption patterns; rural education and human capital accumulation; and poverty alleviation.     

我国农村土地流转及其发展趋势

农地在农业生产和农村经济中的特殊地位,决定了农村土地制度是农业和农村经济制度的核心和重要基础。随着经济体制改革的不断深化和农村社会的持续发展,现有农地产权制度和使用制度的内在缺陷逐渐显露,已成为我国农村经济和社会发展的障碍。应创新农村土地产权制度,分三阶段逐步推进,以保持农村经济发展的生机和活力。     

我国粮食生产周期性特征与对策建议

系统回顾了改革开放30年来,我国粮食生产经历的6个主要阶段的周期性特征,归纳了各个阶段影响粮食稳定增长的主要因素;从制度创新、政策扶持、科技进步、防灾减灾等4个方面,概括总结了30年来我国发展粮食生产取得的成功经验;最后提出建立国家粮食安全长效机制的5点对策建议。     

Spatial distribution pattern and its optimization strategy of China’s overseas farmland investments

Overseas farmland investment is an “external program” contrary to the “internalization program” such as multiple planning integration and farmland protection, to solve the contradiction of food security and urbanization during the process of China’s development. Though overseas farmland investment being a new investment tide for decades, research on overseas farmland investment is still in its infancy, with limited research dimensions and insufficient depth. How to establish a scientific and reasonable selection model of the host country for China as well as other countries has become an urgent academic and practical issue to decrease the investment risks. This paper analyzes the spatial distribution of China’s overseas farmland investment with the investment samples from 2000 to 2017 and proposes its operational strategy. Here are the conclusions. (a) The obvious imbalance of the distribution of China’s overseas farmland investment. Further research from a global perspective finds that the existent distribution pattern of China is not optimal. (b)The correlation analysis result shows the trends of overseas farmland investment with political stability and benefits seeking. (c) Host countries most suitable for overseas farmland investment are concentrated in Southeast Asia and along the equator in Africa and Latin America. (d) The existent distribution pattern for China’s overseas farmland investment needs some proper adjustment. China should increase the scale of overseas farmland investment in non-traditional regions while strengthening the status of the core investment regions in Southeast Asia, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.     

The Evolving Structure of Chinese R&D Funding and its Implications for the Productivity of Agricultural Biotechnology Research

China’s research and development (R&D) policy has changed considerably over recent decades, and great changes occurred in 2006 when the main programme objective of China’s R&D changed from the 863 Programme and 973 Programme to the National Science and Technology Major Project. One topic that has drawn extensive attention is whether the investment reform improved R&D productivity in China. Using a unique panel dataset from 160 universities, this paper examines the effect of the investment reform on productivity improvement in China’s agricultural biotechnology sector. We use a panel count data model with a dynamic feedback mechanism to model the knowledge production process. Strong evidence indicates that the investment reform greatly contributes to knowledge output production in China’s agricultural biotechnology sector. We also find that the input quality is more important than the absolute quantity; human research capacity exhibits the greatest contribution to the output of patents; past knowledge accumulation helps produce more patents; and entry barriers to patent production exist in China’s agricultural biotechnology sector. Moreover, the patent explosion in China may have been largely caused by improvements in the human capital input quality.     

An evaluation of contemporary China’s land use policy – The Link Policy: A case study from Ezhou,Hubei Province

Economic reform in China has resulted in rapid urbanisation over the past three decades, changing the urban and rural landscape dramatically. A large amount of farmland was developed, leading to conflict between construction demand and farmland protection. In response, the “Link Policy” was proposed in 2005 that seeks to concurrently preserve farmland while providing for urban expansion through land exchange. The effectiveness of the Link Policy has not been systematically investigated. The purpose of this study is to analyse and evaluate outcomes of the Link Policy objectives from both a participant and investigator’s interpretive perspective. Ezhou, the first experimental city to implement the Link Policy in Hubei Province in central China, was selected as a case study area. Eight different communities in Ezhou were visited and 160 semi-structured interviews were conducted with resettled rural residents in March 2016. A combination of interviews and investigator field observations were used to evaluate the Link Policy objectives. The results show that participants recognize and support improving rural living conditions and coordinating urban-rural development, but the Link Policy failed to achieve the objectives of preserving farmland, protecting farmers’ land use rights and interests, and facilitating agricultural production. Participants perceived concentrated resettlement communities to be more efficient in land use compared to more expansive rural settlements, but vacant apartments for commercial use in resettlement areas account for a large proportion of land suggesting inefficiency in the land exchanges. We suggest policy changes to achieve more successful implementation of the Link Policy.     

Transfer of development rights,farmland preservation,and economic growth: a case study of Chongqing’s land quotas trading program

The dilemma between preserving farmland and urbanization has attracted many policymakers’ attention. One sound solution that has been practiced in several developed countries is the “transfer of development rights” (TDR). This study examines a specific TDR program in China—the Chongqing Land Quotas Trading program. We use a synthetic control method on the 2001–2014 statistics of 57 prefectures to quantitatively assess the program’s effect on farmland preservation and economic growth. A mixed method, including both satellite image analysis and qualitative interviews, was also used to obtain some intuitive evidence to understand the mechanism of this program. We find that the Chongqing TDR program has substantially reduced the loss of farmland and played a significant role in stimulating economic growth. We argue that the use of TDR might effectively address the farmland preservation and urbanization dilemma in China.     

Rural land system reforms in China: History,issues, measures and prospects

Land system reform (LSR) helps to protect farmers' rights and interests and national food security. China is a country dominated by agriculture but insufficient arable land resources. The contradiction between man and land is prominent. To alleviate the man-land contradiction, the Chinese government has carried out a series of LSRs, especially in the past half century. Extensive and in-depth studies have been done on the process and stage characteristics of China's LSRs, but the systematic analysis on the necessity, problems and key measures to deepen the land system reform is still insufficient. Based on a systematic review of the history of the evolution of China's LSRs, this study firstly analyzed the key issues and new challenges existing in or arising from China's land system, then put forward the necessity of deepening the reform of land system, and discussed specific measures taken to deepen the reform of land system in China at present and finally pointed out the future LSR’s direction. The results show that China's rural LSR has gone through five stages in general since 1949. The key problems existing or arising from the current land system in China include unclear subject of land property right, serious inefficient utilization of land resources, rapid farmland conversion and conflict between farmers’ interests and land system. The dual land system in urban and rural areas has severely restricted the integration of social and economic development in this country. The Chinese government is actively promoting the reforms of rural agricultural land, collective operating construction land and homestead to further remove the dual institutional barriers that hinder the establishment of an integrated land trading market. The vision is good, but there is still a long way to go for China's LSR. The direction of China's rural LSR is to make the property rights relationship clearer, the farmland rights more complete, the transfer transactions more market-oriented and the property rights’ protection more equal. Deepening the rural LSRs is helpful to improve the efficiency of land resource utilization, safeguard the rights and interests of farmers, promote the coordination of human-land relationship, and inject new vitality and momentum into rural revitalization. Cooperative promotion of land resource capitalization reform and household registration system reform is the key area of land system reform in China in the future.     

LADM-based profile for farmland Tripartite Entitlement System in China

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has undergone a promotion of industrialisation, urbanisation and agricultural modernisation. This promotion has triggered the mass migration of rural labour forces into cities, leading to the virtual situation of the separation of farmland contract and operation rights. To respond to this issue, the central government proposed a strategy of farmland reform in China. Such reform aims to transform the former ‘Bipartite Entitlement System’ into a ‘Tripartite Entitlement System (TES)’.¹ Land registration provides the means for recognising formalised property rights and regulating the characteristics and transfer of land-related rights. As for farmland registration in China, it serves as a basis to explore effective forms of collective farmland ownership by implementing collective farmland ownership, stabilising farmers’ contract rights and liberalising farmland operation rights. Thus, in this study, on the basis of the farmland tripartite entitlement (hereinafter referred to as ‘FTE’) reform in China, we develop a Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)-based TES model that will serve as the basis of subsequent system development. Specifically, first, we summarise the evolution process of China’s farmland rights system since the foundation of new China. Second, we propose a farmland rights system after the FTE reform. Then, the corresponding TES model is developed based on the LADM standard and some instance-level diagrams for farmland administration activities. The new functionality of the model includes improved structuring of farmland rights and restrictions (and related source documents) and improved expansion of the land information infrastructure to rural areas.     

Economic development and farmland protection: An assessment of rewarded land conversion quotas trading in Zhejiang,China

Facing a substantial loss of farmland in the reform era, the Chinese central government established a highly centralized land management system in 1998 to guarantee its capacity to meet the domestic food needs. In order to maintain high-speed economic growth, local governments in China made great efforts to circumvent the stringent constraint on land use by launching various innovative land management schemes, among which Zhejiang's rewarded land conversion quotas (RLCQ) trading scheme, a program similar to the transfer of development rights (TDR) in Western countries, has attracted a lot of policy and scholarly attention. In this research, we first provide an overview of China's farmland protection policy and the RLCQ trading scheme in Zhejiang Province. Then, using the system GMM estimator for economic growth models and a panel dataset of 69 local jurisdictions in Zhejiang Province covering the period of 1989–2008, we assess the impacts of RLCQ trading on local economic growth. The empirical results corroborate our hypotheses that participation in land quota trading in general led to faster local economic growth, and that the trading had a stronger and more lasting impact on the economic growth of the quota buyers than on that of the sellers. The analysis suggests that in order to balance the competing goals of economic development and farmland protection, market-based land management tools have a good potential for further development in China and other countries confronting similar challenges.     

中国林业与绿色经济

在绿色经济的框架下简要回顾了我国林业的30年发展战略,分析了我国林业对绿色经济的贡献,指出了绿色经济将对我国林业带来的机遇与挑战,并提出了应对策略。认为,我国林业从国情、林情出发,坚持以生态建设为主的发展战略,壮大林业产业,坚持改革创新,使我国林业初步实现绿色转型,对绿色经济贡献显著;绿色经济将有利于增加林业投资,推动森林旅游、木质能源等新兴产业的发展,但我国在森林资源经营和管理、森林绿色核算等方面还不能达到绿色经济的要求。     

平原林业特殊性及集体林权改革路径研究

平原林业在政治、经济、社会、自然状况方面有着固有的特殊属性。运用比较分析的方法,对平原林业与平原农业、南方林区林业进行对比,指出了林权改革应注意的一些问题,提出平原地区在借鉴吸收国外和南方林区的经验的基础上,要进行林地制度创新、林木制度创新和配套制度创新。     

特殊经济功能区在城市创新体系中的作用——以大连为例

特殊经济功能区是我国对外开放的先导示范基地,也是我国经济最具活力、具有潜力的增长点。作为城市发展的增长极,各类特殊经济功能区在城市创新体系中占据重要地位,其具有的综合优势为城市的创新发展提供了一个微缩的区域创新体系,文章从特殊经济功能区的空间载体、强势带动作用、科技资源的磁力中心等方面对特殊经济功能区在城市创新发展中的作用做了详细论述,并以大连为例,提出了促进特殊经济功能区创新效应的对策建议。     

新中国70年中国农村社会保障制度的演进逻辑与未来展望

新中国成立以来,得益于我国综合国力的快速提升和中国特色社会主义的制度优势,我国农村社会保障事业取得了巨大成就,但仍存在社会保障制度城乡不均衡发展等重要问题。本文依据多源流模型和公共产品理论构建了我国农村社会保障制度演进的分析框架进行分析表明,我国农村社会保障制度演进大概经历了制度萌芽与停滞、恢复与探索、改革与发展、完善和提高四个阶段,人民日益增长的美好生活需要、党和国家"以人民为中心"的发展理念、政策试点与政策研究、经济体制改革与综合国力提升共同构成了农村社会保障制度演进的动力机制。针对农村社会保障制度演进面临的重要挑战,提出了加强农村社会保障治理体系现代化建设等未来展望。     

台湾农地保护政策的演变及对大陆的启示

台湾50多年来的农业发展过程中进行过三次农地改革,每一次农地制度改革对台湾的农业、工业乃至整个社会都产生了十分重要的作用,形成了独特的"台湾模式"。台湾农地改革对大陆的启示是:土他改革是农业生产的推动力,不同的农业发展阶段需采取不同的农地保护政策,农地政策对农地数量的变化具有重要影响,土地改革需有详尽的法律规定作基础。大陆的农地保护应从数量、质量、生态三方面进行,建立产权明晰的土地政策,制定并颁布基本农田保护法规,避免农地非农化的随意性,优化土地利用结构提高农地利用效益。     

中国农户在农地流转市场上能否如愿以偿?——流转市场的交易成本考察

农地流转是实现规模经营的重要途径,尽管中国农地流转市场发展迅速,但农户在流转市场上能否转入自己想要转入数量的土地尚无人关注。本文利用全国6省1200户2000年和2008年追踪调查数据实证分析农户的流转意愿多大程度上可以在流转市场上得以实现,进而考察流转市场交易成本的存在性、对称性和动态性。研究表明,中国农地流转市场存在明显的交易成本,因此流转市场是不完善的。具体结论:第一,流转市场存在明显进入门槛,进入市场后农户也无法实现完全调整,转入户2000年和2008年分别能实现调整意愿的24%和37%,高于转出户的19%和18%;第二,流转市场的交易成本存在非对称性,转入户比转出户面临的交易门槛高,但进入市场后转入户调整意愿实现程度高于转出户;第三,从2000年到2008年,流转市场的交易门槛显著降低了,但进入市场后调整意愿实现程度并没有显著提高;第四,农资设备和劳动力等要素市场的不完善程度更严重,因此农地流转市场发挥了将土地这种"不能移动"的要素移动起来以迎合那些"本该移动"的要素功能,提高了资源配置效率。政府应进一步提高农地产权稳定性,降低流转市场交易成本,加快农业生产社会化服务业发展,完善农村劳动力市场。     

“十四五”时期中国农村发展若干重大问题

"十四五"时期是中国经济社会发展的重要转折时期,其规划制定必须处理好继承和创新的关系,实现继承性与创新性相统一。新中国70年的持续发展、40多年的农村改革经验以及"十三五"规划的有序推进,为"十四五"时期中国农村发展奠定了坚实的基础。随着2020年全面建成小康社会和脱贫攻坚目标的实现,中国将进入高水平全面建成小康社会进而向富裕社会迈进的"后小康"时代,国家"三农"工作的重点将逐步由脱贫攻坚转移到全面实施乡村振兴战略上来。在"十四五"时期,立足"两个阶段"发展目标,进一步巩固提高农村全面小康质量、为农业农村基本现代化开好局将成为核心主题。围绕这一核心主题,中国农村发展需要着力解决好五个重大问题,即建设高水平的农村全面小康、夯实农业农村基本现代化的基础、实现由脱贫攻坚到乡村振兴的转型、破解粮食安全和农民增收难题以及推动农村改革由试点走向全面推开。     

Build a people-oriented urbanization: China’s new-type urbanization dream and Anhui model

Since 2014, the Chinese government has initiatednew-type urbanization under the guidance of ‘the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014–2020)’, which embarks on a significant transformation of the model of urbanization in post-reform China. To understand the origin and outputs of this policy, this article demonstrates the context of China’s new-type urbanization. The paper proposes a conceptual framework of new-type urbanization, which mainly includes four aspects: humanism, people-oriented urbanization; inclusivism, benefits sharing for urban and rural; sustainability, development without sacrifice of resources and environment; and harmonism, coordination. This is followed by an examination of the case of Anhui province, as a pilot province of China’s new-type urbanization. Anhui has performed a lot of related work to promote citizenization of peasant workers and has made great progress on the reform of the household registration system. The study found that despite a special emphasis on people-oriented urbanization, the pressures and costs of citizenization of peasant workers are growing fast, accompanied by rising housing prices in cities. This insight suggests there are benefits and costs of promoting China’s new-type urbanization. Despite the advantages of institutional innovation, the unexpected side effects such as rapid rising housing prices actually undermine the success of plan implementation.     

Late Industrialization and Structural Change: Indonesia, 1975–2000

This paper examines economic growth and structural change in Indonesia during the period 1975–2000 using an input–output-based structural change decomposition method. The analysis focuses on the sources and pattern of growth during three phases of economic development: the inward-oriented phase from 1975 to 1985; the outward-oriented phase from 1985 to 1995; and the recent phase of crisis and recovery from 1995 to 2000. Growth during the first phase, although impressive, was moderate in comparison with the export-led manufacturing-driven growth during the second phase. During both these phases, the Indonesian economy witnessed significant structural changes, especially within manufacturing. However, the dynamics underlying growth and structural change showed important differences. Although growth under the first two policy regimes was assisted by favourable economic circumstances, selective industrial policies may also have played a significant role. The results suggest that the long neglect of the technological foundations and human capital base of the economy could be holding back recovery and sustained growth in the present phase.     

Is Portugal’s forest transition going up in smoke?

The turnarounds from decrease to expansion in forest areas that took place during the last century have been examined through the lens of forest transition theory (FTT). Among temperate and Mediterranean European countries that have seen an expansion of forest cover, Portugal stands out as the only case in which this trend has recently been reverted. In this study, we explicitly map and document the forest transition (FT) in the country over the period 1907–2006, and investigate when and where forest transition happened de facto, and which were the land use transition pathways that resulted from the shrublands, agriculture, and forest interplay dynamics. After thematic and geometric harmonization of land cover maps from 1907, 1955, 1970, 1990, and 2006, a cluster analysis established four typologies, and a transition matrix was constructed to assess land cover dynamics. We found that up to 1955, FT occurred simultaneously with agricultural expansion, as shrubland areas diminished. Afterwards, with the retraction of agricultural area and the consequential decoupling of forest management from local actors, FT gained momentum and expanded up to the 1990s. While during the first half of the 20th century, forest expansion followed the “Scarcity” and “State Policy” pathways fostered by local socio-ecological feedback loops, throughout the second half of the century forest transition was driven by exogenous socio-economic forces, following “Economic Development” and “Globalization” pathways. We show how, despite these forces, FT can be derailed by endogenous factors such as wildfires, which limited and in some areas even reverted the afforestation process, initiating a deforestation phase. Since the necessary conditions for FT (technology shift, urbanization, agriculture retraction and public afforestation programs) were available in mainland Portugal, we advance the hypothesis that critical wildfire risk governance deficits may have been responsible for arresting FT. Considering the critical role of forests and other wooded areas in supporting climate change mitigation and sustainable development, our work provides useful evidence and insights for public decision makers on previously unaddressed dimensions of FTT.