Xi stresses deepening rural land system reform in new era

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping has underlined the importance of making efforts to deepen the reform of the rural land system in the new era, prioritizing the protection of farmers' rights and interests.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in an important instruction that work to confirm, register and certify rural contracted land rights will ensure the protection of land contract and management rights, and will consolidate and improve the basic rural management system.

Solid efforts should be made in advancing work to extend the second round of land contracts for another 30 years after their expiry, said Xi.

Xi urged the fostering of new types of agricultural management entities, the development of agricultural socialized service organizations, and encouragement and support for the vast number of smallholder household farmers so that they can combine their development with modern agriculture, bringing vitality to the basic rural management system.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, in an instruction stressed the importance of implementing the policy to extend the second round of land contracts for another 30 years and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of hundreds of millions of farmers.

A teleconference was held on Monday in Beijing concerning work on the registration and certification of rural contracted land rights. Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, was in attendance at the meeting and delivered a speech.

Hu called for solid work to strengthen the protection of farmers' land contract and management rights, and to steadily advance the second round of extensions for expiring land contracts.

More efforts should be made to maintain control of contracted farmland usage to forbid non-agricultural use, Hu stressed, calling for accelerated establishment and improvement of the daily management and service mechanism for rural contracted land.

The teleconference laid out further plans for management and reform work on contracted land.