Preliminary study on the adjustment of land ownership in "fertile land construction project"

In order to further implement Scientific Outlook on Development, promote the overall planning of urban and rural areas and the construction of a new socialist countryside, achieve a win-win situation in protecting resources and ensuring development, strengthen the economical and intensive use of land, optimize the structure of land use, and promote the development of large-scale and modern agriculture, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Land and Resources has carried out the "fertile land construction project". The project mainly consists of sub-projects such as land consolidation, compensation for rural residential demolition, balance of urban and rural construction land occupation and compensation, resettlement of agricultural population, and adjustment of land ownership.

The adjustment of land ownership is an important part of the "fertile land construction project", which is of great practical significance for promoting the smooth progress of the project, realizing intensive and mechanized land use, clarifying land property rights, reducing land ownership disputes, maintaining rural social stability and promoting the sustainable development of rural economy (Xu Ming, Liu Youzhao, 2008). However, the theoretical preparation and practical experience of ownership adjustment in engineering construction are relatively lacking, and the work of ownership adjustment has been lagging behind. At present, the research on ownership adjustment by experts and scholars is still in its infancy, and many problems have not been solved theoretically (Lian Zikang, 2007; Hu Yudong and Wu Cifang, 2009). Therefore, it is necessary to further explore the relevant contents of ownership adjustment and provide some reference for effective adjustment of ownership.

1 Connotation of land ownership adjustment

Generally speaking, property right is the sum of all kinds of rights with property as the object, and it can also be said to be the floorboard of property rights (Ye Yanmei, 2002). Land property right is the sum of all rights about land based on land ownership and centered on land use right, and it is a bundle of rights composed of various rights, including land ownership, land possession, land use right, land income right and land disposal right. The property right of land can belong to different subjects and be exercised by different subjects. Land ownership refers to the ownership of various land rights (ownership, use right and other rights); Ownership adjustment refers to the process in which the object of property rights changes and flows among property rights subjects (Chen, 2002; Ye Yanmei, 2002).

The adjustment of ownership in the "fertile land construction project" refers to the adjustment of the object of property rights (that is, the adjustment of land ownership) due to the needs of planning and design, the merger and concentration of plots and other reasons. The essence of ownership adjustment in "fertile land construction project" is the process that all landowners use their rights on the land in the project area before the project construction, and legally exchange their corresponding rights on the land after the project construction according to the principles and standards recognized by the project construction participants through the ownership adjustment and conversion mechanism recognized by the project construction participants.

2 land ownership adjustment content

2. 1 Overview of "Construction Project of 1000 hectares of fertile land"

The fertile land construction project in Jiangsu Province refers to the comprehensive improvement of farmland, water, roads, forests and villages with the land development and consolidation project as the carrier, the implementation of the policy of linking the increase and decrease of urban and rural construction land as the starting point, in accordance with the overall land use planning and urban planning, and in accordance with the requirements of coordinating urban and rural development and accelerating the construction of a new socialist countryside. Move rural residents to cities and towns to economize and intensively use construction land; It is a systematic project to build a large area of contiguous high-standard farmland, optimize the regional land use layout, and achieve the goals of farmland concentration, residential agglomeration, land intensification and benefit concentration (Jiangsu Provincial Department of Land and Resources, 2008).

The core content of "fertile land construction project" is "effectively gathering potential resources and coordinating urban and rural development in an orderly manner" to realize the effective gathering of cultivated land resources, construction land resources, labor resources, market demand and public service resources. Through the "fertile land construction project", we will build high-quality and high-standard farmland suitable for modern machinery operation, and constantly promote the scale of agricultural management and the modernization of agricultural production, so as to optimize the land use structure and save and intensively use land (Wang Dan, Zhang Jun, 2009).

According to the Notice of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Land and Resources on Printing and Distributing the Pilot Program of "Fertile Land Construction Project" (No.290 [2008] of the Ministry of Land and Resources), the conditions of Wanqing's "fertile land construction project" are as follows: ① The project area (land development and consolidation area) should be a county (city, district) with a total area of 10. (2) The local government actively organizes and has the matching ability of government financial resources or socialized funds suitable for the project construction; (3) With the consent of the members of the collective economic organizations in the project area; ④ Conforming to the overall land use planning and urban planning; ⑤ There is no contradiction in land ownership in the project area.

2.2 ownership adjustment types

The scope of land ownership adjustment is the land in the whole project area, and the types of adjustment include three aspects: ① land ownership adjustment; ② Adjustment of land use right; ③ Adjustment of land contractual management right.

2.2. 1 land ownership adjustment

Land ownership is the legal embodiment of land ownership and the right of land owners to possess, use, benefit and dispose of land according to law (Chen, 2002). Land ownership adjustment includes ownership adjustment between state-owned land and collective land and collective land ownership adjustment (Xu Ming, Liu Youzhao, 2008). The adjustment of ownership between collective land and state-owned land is mainly "fertile land construction project" In China, the boundary between farms and rural collective land is irregular. The purpose of ownership adjustment is to make the land continuous and regular after the project construction, which is conducive to mechanized farming. Generally speaking, this type is relatively rare.

There are mainly two kinds of ownership adjustment between collective land and collective land: ① when the project construction crosses the village boundary or villagers' group boundary, the ownership adjustment of land on both sides of the village boundary or villagers' group boundary; (2) Land ownership adjustment of "enclaves" among villages in the project area. Generally, the first one is the main one, supplemented by the second one.

2.2.2 Adjustment of land use right

Land use right refers to the right of land users to possess, use, benefit and dispose of state-owned or collective-owned land within the scope permitted by law according to laws, documents and contracts (Chen, 2002). The adjustment of land use right in the project area is mainly the adjustment of collective land use right, including the adjustment of homestead use right, garden land use right and woodland use right, as well as the adjustment of new cultivated land use right.

2.2.3 Adjustment of land contractual management right

The right to contracted management of rural land refers to the right of members of rural collective organizations and other civil subjects to possess, use, benefit and dispose of state-owned or collective-owned land in accordance with the provisions of the contract. It is a unique concept in China's rural land system, and China's Property Law defines the contracted management right of land as usufructuary right.

With regard to the adjustment of land contractual management right, in the process of land consolidation, irrigation and water conservancy planning and road construction, it is necessary to adjust the irregular boundaries between farmers' contracted land to meet the requirements of modern agricultural development.

2.3 ownership adjustment method

2.3. 1 land ownership adjustment

In order to make the land after the project construction regular and easy to cultivate and manage, the land ownership will be adjusted at the irregular boundary between the original collectively owned land and the state-owned land according to the planning requirements and the principle of equal area or equal value after consultation between the two parties.

In engineering construction, if both sides of the village administrative boundary or the ownership boundary of villagers' groups need to be adjusted, it should be adjusted according to the principle of equal area or equal value: if the land production conditions are equivalent, it can be adjusted by simple equal area method; If the land production conditions are quite different, we should evaluate the land value before and after the adjustment and adjust the land ownership according to the principle of equivalence. The "enclave" between adjacent villages should be adjusted by both parties through consultation according to the principle of reciprocity; For enclaves between non-adjacent villages, they should be adjusted through adjacent villages in turn according to the principle of equivalence (CoCo Lee et al., 2004).

2.3.2 Adjustment of land use right

Before the construction of the project, the land ownership must be investigated and verified, and the ownership registration should be unified. After the investigation of the present situation of land ownership is completed, the land management department should make a comprehensive evaluation of the present situation of land as the basis for formulating the adjustment plan of land ownership after the project construction. After the project construction, the determination of land use rights can be divided according to the registered contents.

The adjustment of the right to use the homestead in the project area shall be announced before the implementation of the project, and the village Committee shall sign an agreement with the relocated farmers so that the relocated collective economic organizations can recover the original land use right. After the homestead is reclaimed, the newly-added agricultural land will be merged into the surrounding farmland, which will be used by the collective economic organizations in a unified way and operated on a large scale, and the proceeds will be owned by the collective economic organizations.

The ownership of the garden and forest land in the project area belongs to the village collective, and the right to use it is contracted to individuals. Before the implementation of the project, sign an agreement with the right holder to compensate the trees. After the project is implemented, the right to use will be returned to the village collective economic organization. In order to promote the intensive management of agriculture, gardens and woodlands will be reclaimed. As cultivated land after reclamation, it will be used by collective economic organizations in a unified way and operated on a large scale, and the proceeds will be owned by collective economic organizations.

The newly-increased cultivated land is calculated according to the proportion of the land area of each ownership unit to the total project area before the project construction, and then multiplied by the sum of the newly-increased cultivated land area and the consolidation area after the project construction, so as to determine the area of each ownership unit after the project construction and allocate it to each ownership unit (Ye Yanmei, 2002). If the newly-increased cultivated land is mainly obtained through other agricultural land consolidation and unused land development, the land will be used uniformly by the collective economic organizations, and the proceeds will be owned by the collective economic organizations (Lian Zikang, 2007).

2.3.3 Adjustment of land contractual management right

The land ownership in the project area belongs to the village collective, and the contractual management right belongs to the farmers in the village. After the implementation of the project, according to the status quo of land ownership confirmed before the construction, the rights and interests of contractual management rights will be determined equally, and the specific plots will not be determined. Farmers will realize land scale management in the form of shareholding or lease of land contractual management rights. There are three main ways to adjust the land contractual management right (Lian Zikang, 2007; Wang Yuling et al., 2008), as follows:

(1) Equal quality and equal quantity adjustment. In areas with underdeveloped economy and difficult land circulation, on the basis of stabilizing the land contractual management right, the land after construction will be redistributed and identified according to the pattern of land quantity and quality before and after construction, and the land ownership boundary and land contractual management right will be signed. Because the area of the plot becomes larger and the number of plots decreases after the project construction, it may be jointly operated by several farmers in the same plot, which can be solved by making some symbolic distinguishing signs in the plot (Ye Yanmei, 2002).

(2) shareholding system adjustment. In economically developed areas, the secondary and tertiary industries have developed rapidly, and some farmers have moved to the secondary and tertiary industries, with relatively stable non-agricultural income. After the completion of the project, they can convert their shares into shares according to the land price or land quality evaluation results before the construction, and voluntarily set up a joint-stock land management organization in the form of "share-sharing and unified management" to manage the land in a unified way, so that shareholders can get benefits by share. Generally speaking, there are two main forms of land joint-stock system: ① Land joint-stock cooperatives, which are formed on the basis of land contracting rights and engaged in large-scale management of field crops; (2) Farmers' specialized cooperatives, in which land contracting rights become one of the forms of cooperatives, engage in specialized cooperative production of planting and breeding, and distribute the surplus of cooperatives according to the transaction volume. The farmer's land contracting right has changed his land contracting from the original physical form to the value form, realized the transaction of land property rights, and enabled farmers to effectively share the land value-added benefits.

(3) lease adjustment. In economically developed areas, most of the agricultural labor force has been stably transferred to the secondary and tertiary industries, and obtained reliable economic income. According to the principle of farmers' voluntariness, the land contracted by families can be appropriately concentrated and built by rural collective economic organizations. After the project is built, the land will be leased to large households through agreement or bidding, and a lease contract will be signed. The land lease fee will be used for endowment insurance or allocated to the transferor of land contractual management right.

3 prone to land ownership adjustment problems

3. 1 The registration of ownership survey is not in place.

Insufficient attention is paid to the investigation and registration of land ownership in engineering construction, which leads to the simplification of land ownership adjustment procedures. In the project area, land ownership surveys are mostly carried out inside and outside, but they are mostly confined to administrative villages, and there are few land ownership surveys conducted in villagers' groups. When land ownership is adjusted, the adjustment of ownership and use right is directly carried out between ownership subjects or between ownership subjects and users; The adjustment of land contractual management right is determined by collective economic organizations through consultation with contractors or large households, lacking the supervision and guidance of the government.

In terms of land registration, the collective ownership is not paid enough attention in the process of project construction, and there are fewer land registration and issuance of ownership certificates, which leads to more disputes and contradictions in land ownership; After the completion of the project construction, the land and resources management department will adjust the ownership according to the land allocation results. After the completion of ownership adjustment, the registration of land ownership change and the issuance of land ownership certificates were not handled in time, which lacked the consolidation of project construction achievements.

3.2 Farmers' insufficient participation in the process of ownership adjustment

Although the adjustment of ownership in the process of engineering construction is closely related to farmers' interests and is the most concerned issue for farmers, in some places, farmers' participation in the actual adjustment process is not sufficient. The "10,000 hectares of fertile land construction project" is mainly a government action and adopts a top-down operation mode. The local land and resources management department shall, according to the regional situation, prepare a feasibility study report and apply for national or provincial engineering construction projects. After the project is approved, it will enter the planning and design stage. The preliminary plan of the ownership adjustment of the project construction is also mainly compiled by the land consolidation agency, and farmers can really participate only in the implementation stage of the ownership adjustment.

3.3 Evaluation of agricultural land value is not in place.

The main basis of land ownership adjustment is land value, but the evaluation of agricultural land value is not in place during the project construction, and many local projects are only redistributed according to a considerable number of standards after construction. Before the project construction, the feasibility analysis of the project only evaluates the land suitability, not the land value. After the project construction, before the ownership adjustment, the village collective will generally invite farmers' representatives to discuss and evaluate the land grade. However, the evaluation is simple and rough. Generally, crop yield is classified or only factors such as soil texture and soil thickness are considered, while important factors affecting land value, such as the distance from residential areas and roads, are less considered, which leads to unreasonable evaluation results. In order to make farmers accept the land distribution scheme, lots are often used to make unfair distribution appear fair.

3.4 Lack of farmers' rights and interests

The income from farmland circulation must be owned by the landowner or the right to use it. However, in the process of adjusting the contractual management right, the right to transfer income is partially missing, and farmers cannot obtain the expected income right of agricultural land. In the spontaneous circulation of farmers, the market pricing of the circulation price is relatively arbitrary, and there is neither a unified procedure nor a unified standard, which leads to the fact that most of the formulated farmland prices deviate from the actual value of farmland. In the circulation with collective promotion, the circulation price is set unilaterally by the government, and the price is lowered through the intervention of administrative forces. In the circulation promoted by the government, on the issue of rent and lease term, many people compare the rent with farmers' current income from grain production, and think that it is feasible to increase the current food price, but underestimate the expected space for farmers' income growth and the possible payment crisis of enterprises, and farmers actually lose the expected income from agricultural land.

Some farmers lack the right to choose circulation, which reverses the relationship between master and servant in the circulation process. In some places, in the process of adopting "share cooperation" circulation, there is more or less coercion. Some people have collaborators first, and then do the work of farmers, thus denying the dominant position of farmers in the market economy. In the spontaneous circulation of farmers, farmers can choose the object of circulation independently and negotiate the circulation price, payment method, circulation form and time limit. However, in the collective unified organization circulation, because the government always tries to use its administrative power to intervene in the farmland circulation, there will inevitably be hitchhiking and opportunism, and the phenomenon of forced circulation exists. Farmers can't completely decide whether, how and at what price the contracted management right is transferred.

4 Countermeasures and suggestions

4. 1 Standardize the investigation and registration of land ownership

When land ownership adjustment occurs in the process of engineering construction, strict operating procedures should be followed to keep the field work consistent with the map; At the same time, pay attention to the implementation of land ownership adjustment scheme, strengthen government supervision and guidance, and make overall adjustment of ownership, use right and contracting right, so as to make the operation of ownership adjustment more standardized. Strengthen land registration, issue ownership certificates to collective land ownership, and timely register the change of land ownership after the adjustment of land ownership, so as to ensure that the land ownership is clear before and after the project construction and reduce the disputes over land ownership during the project construction.

4.2 Farmers fully participate in ownership adjustment

The adjustment of ownership in engineering construction is most closely related to the interests of farmers, who should fully participate in the whole process and fully respect their wishes. Before the construction of the project, villagers' meetings or villagers' congresses should be held to solicit the opinions of farmers. With the consent of more than two thirds of the villagers, the ownership adjustment plan should be formulated and reported to the higher authorities for approval. After approval, it will be publicized in the village and accepted by the masses. The village committee or villagers' group will sign a written agreement with relevant farmers, and finally implement the ownership adjustment in detail.

4.3 Scientific evaluation of agricultural land value before and after the project construction.

Drawing lessons from the experience of advanced countries, the value of agricultural land has been evaluated many times, and the land value before and after the "10,000 hectares of fertile land construction project" has been scientifically and prudently evaluated, which provides a basis for formulating the ownership adjustment plan. Many evaluations are composed of the same land evaluation experts and local cadres and masses, and follow the same evaluation system. The selection of evaluation factors should be comprehensive and reasonable, considering not only natural factors such as soil, topography, irrigation and drainage, but also socio-economic conditions such as location and transportation.

4.4 Effectively protect farmers' rights and interests

By establishing a reasonable price mechanism, a standardized intermediary mechanism and an effective restraint mechanism, we will build a market-oriented farmland transfer mechanism based on protecting farmers' rights and interests. Only by establishing farmland circulation on the basis of market mechanism can farmers decide to expand or reduce the scale of land management and decide whether to participate in farmland circulation according to market conditions. Under the adjustment of effective fair competition mechanism and supply and demand mechanism, farmers can independently find the transferor and the transferor, and rationally transfer farmland, thus effectively protecting their rights and interests.

In addition, relevant laws and regulations should be further improved, and detailed provisions should be made on the management organization and its functions, procedures, principles and standards, disputes and handling of ownership adjustment, and operation methods of ownership adjustment in engineering construction.