Source: CCTV.com

05-05-2006 15:47

Due to China's accelerated industrialization and urbanization, tens of millions of farmers have lost all or part of their farmland. Let's now take a look at the situation the country's landless farmers are facing.

Broad, straight highways, and modern factory buildings. This is what you'll find at the Paojiang Industrial Park in Shaoxing, a city in East China's Zhejiang province. It's hard to believe that five years ago, there were acres of paddy fields, wetlands and ponds.

60-year-old Zhong Argu was once a farmer here.

Zhong said: "I managed two paddy fields at that time. But the earnings were barely sufficient. So I had to work at a factory nearby to support my family."

But things changed in 2001. The local government decided to transform the farmland here into an industrial park. Like all the other villagers, Zhong handed his plots of land to the government for 40,000 yuan, or less than 5,000 US dollars, in cash as compensation.

A year later, Zhong and his family moved into a neighborhood nearby, built by the local government for villagers previously living on the land.

In late 2003, Zhong and his wife joined a super-annuation scheme launched by the local government. Here, contributor's payments are matched equally by the government. Zhang began to receive a pension from the scheme from the time he turned 60 - earlier this year.

Zhong said: "I paid 3,500 yuan in total, and the town's government contributed the other half. Now I get 200 yuan in annuities each month. We do not farm any more, and live mainly on working at factories in the town. But we are better off than before."

This is a pastry-making class offered for free by the local employment office for middle-aged women in the neighborhood. Zhong's wife is one of the students here. Similar vocational training, such as computers and housekeeping, are also on their curriculum schedule. The classes are aimed to improve farmers' capabilities to find new jobs.

Lv Bin, Director of Shaoxing Labor & Social Security Bureau said: "We have nearly 400,000 farmers who lost their land Shaoxing. It could become a social problem and factor of unrest if these farmers' livelihoods cannot be ensured."

Due to local government efforts, over 90 percent of all land-losing farmers in Shaoxing are enjoying social security benefits.

Zhejiang is the first province in China to establish a social security system for farmers whose land is appropriated by the government. And Shaoxing is considered a very successful example of such a program being carried out. But for the country´s 40 to 50 million farmers who have lost all or part of their land, many are not as lucky as those living here in Shaoxing.

The situation of land-less farmers is much more severe in the poorer inland areas. Local governments are often ill-equipped to introduce social security programs.

According to Zhu Shouyin with the Ministry of Agriculture, the key to solving this problem is to reform China's land-appropriation system.

Zhu said: "We should make the price of the land being decided by the market, rather than by the government. This is what is being done under the current land appropriation system. We should also allow farmers themselves to have their say in the pricing process."

Many experts agree that the appropriation of farmland at prices much lower than market value has substantially damaged the interests of land-less farmers. Experts warn their situation cannot expect to be solved if the current system remains un-changed.

 

Editor:Chen Minji