China pilots expanded property rChinese agricultural officials say the government will pilot a set of reforms aimed at giving farmers greater property rights to allow them to enjoy more benefits of the country's urbanization drive.
Vice minister of agriculture Chen Xiaohua says the pilot plan, recently approved by the central authorities, will explore diversified forms of collective ownership of rural land to better protect the interests of farmers.
The official says China will actively grant farmers the right to possess and benefit from their contracted land, allow them to give up or inherit land use rights under certain conditions.
In China, urban land is owned by the state, while rural land is normally under collective ownership.
Reforms since the 1980s have made the trading of urban land evolve into a robust property market.
However, land in the countryside has remained largely static as farmers generally have the right to use the land, but cannot directly trade or mortgage it.
This scenario has put Chinese farmers in a vulnerable position, and a key reform meeting last year pledged to gradually change the situation.
The latest policy specified procedures to allow farmers to transform their collective rights into a shareholding system.ights for Farmers