Deputies of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) are
calling for an increase in compensation to help farmers who lose
their land to construction projects.
But the farmers themselves say a land-leasing policy will better
protect their rights.
Land disputes are among the most common problems in the
countryside, with many farmers sacrificing their most essential
production resource to the construction of factories, roads or
other public infrastructure.
In east China's
Zhejiang Province, such disputes have seen a decline since 2003
after the provincial government applied a transparent
land-expropriation process, built a social insurance system and
provided training opportunities to farmers.
"To reform the land expropriation policy and improve the process
are the key measures to protect the benefits of farmers," said Wang
Jinsong, director of the provincial department of land and
resources. He will make the proposal to revise the Land
Administration Law.
After farmers are informed of the exact use their expropriated
lands, open hearings are held in villages, where farmers may bring
their disputes over compensation or negotiate with land users.
The annual output of the land is the basic evaluation measure
under the Land Administration Law; usually farmers are compensated
five to eight times the value of the land's production.
Farmers who lose their land, the village and the provincial
government each contributes about one-third to the social insurance
mechanism, which will pay farmers at least 200 yuan (US$25) monthly
when they reach retirement age.
But farmers criticize such measures as stopgap and will not
resolve their worries. "Once the land is expropriated and the money
runs out, we do not have enough land left for our future
generations," said NPC deputy Cheng Yangzhen, a farmer from Cixi of
Zhejiang Province.
Cheng said farmers prefer to lease their land for a set term,
such as 10 or 20 years, or they may become shareholders by
investing in the facilities built on their land.
"The vital problem," Cheng said, "is to identify the rights of
the farmers."
(China Daily March 7, 2006)