Farmers benefiting from land-use rights

Li Haiming was called back home two months early before Chinese New Year, and not only because of preparations for the traditional family gathering.

In Li's village in Nanxiong, a city of about 450,000 people in northern Guangdong province, agricultural and land resources officials were busy verifying farmland usage rights for rural families, a nationwide mission started in 2013.

Li's 0.2 hectares of farmland in Liren, a village with 80 households, was formerly rented to families for growing rice and other crops while he and his wife worked in a furniture factory in the prosperous Pearl River Delta.