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China boosts land transfers to ensure better life for farmers

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-16 19:17

After washing the dishes, the old lady decided to nap on the sofa, while her husband went for a stroll.

Such a life in a second-floor apartment in the seat of Huaming township, Tianjin, was beyond the imagination of 72-year-old Bo Jinsheng several years ago, when she was still in the countryside.

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There, she would fill her stove with grass before setting a pan to cook on it, and she faced the prospect of having her land deserted as she aged.

"It (the new apartment) is convenient and the neighborhood environment is good," she said, smiling.

Bo is among the 36,000 beneficiaries in 12 Huaming villages of farmland transfers, which were endorsed by the landmark policy issued by the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the third plenary session of the 17th CPC Central Committee.

Under the policy, farmers may "lease their contracted farmland or transfer their land use rights" to boost farm production and provide funds for them to start new businesses.

In October 2005, Huaming was selected as a pilot site for exchanging rural residential land for urban apartments.

Bo had 0.4 ha of arable land, but both her daughter and son had gone to work in cities. The old couple faced abandoning their land.

In exchange for her former residential land of about 95 sq m, Bo gained an apartment about the same size in the seat of the township. Her farmland was leased to someone else to grow rice, from whom she could earn 2,400 yuan ($353) a year.

The exchange didn't cost the old couple anything; it was paid for by the local government.

According to Zhang Changhe, Party secretary of Huaming township, from the exchange 12 villages gained 243 ha of land that was formerly useless, having been neither arable nor residential land.

A survey showed that 95.3 percent of the villagers were satisfied with the exchange.

"I exchanged an earthen house for a 66-square-meter apartment," said Zhao Jiagui from Zhaozhuang village. "I didn't expect to be so lucky."

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