One new and two amended laws involving China's agriculture and
farmers' interests will take effect on March 1, 2003, according to
the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee under China's National
People's Congress (NPC), the legislative body.
The three laws are the amended Agriculture Law, the amended
Grassland Law and the Law of Rural Land Contract.
Officials from several government departments -- who discussed how
to better implement the laws, protect farmers' interests and ensure
agricultural development in line with China's overall development
strategy -- consider it an urgent task to improve ecological
balance in agricultural development and increase farmers' income as
soon as possible.
This year, China plans to reforest about 7 million hectares of
cultivated land to enhance ecological and environmental protection
in rural areas, according to an official with the State Planning
and Development Commission.
Moreover, about 6.6 million hectares of pasture will be replanted
with grass and closed to stockbreeding, because they were
over-grazed during the past years.
The Ministry of Agriculture has called on agriculture
administrative departments to protect agricultural resources, such
as cultivated lands and grasslands, by improving the household
contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to
output.
The State Forestry Bureau proposes to take measures to ensure
farmers' ownership and interests in reforested cultivated lands
through granting ownership certificates and giving
compensation.
It
is the core of China's agricultural development strategy to
increase farmers' income, and it is also listed as one of the
important tasks for the establishment of a well-off society. The
laws also say that government subsidies to agriculture and farmers
have to be in line with China's commitments to the WTO and
international practices.
The government will give full support to agriculture development
through increasing financial input, said vice-finance minister Xiao
Jie. The State Council will urge local governments to draft or
amend local administrative regulations to better implement the
three laws, said Cao Kangtai, director of the Legislative Affairs
Office.
(China Daily February 22, 2003)