Comparison of China and Japan's "three rural" issues?

Liu Zhiren: Speaking of China, Japan and South Korea have a lot of similarities in agriculture, natural conditions, natural history, rural customs and people are very similar to the scale of operation, I have always believed that the concept of management, management of technology, management of the level of China, Japan and South Korea is by no means worse than Europe and the United States, which I have decades of international agriculture and China's agriculture, in particular, Europe and the United States of America and China, Japan and South Korea, the three countries in agriculture compared to the conclusions, but we are poor is too small, is a major obstacle to constraints on China and Japan's "three agricultural" issues. But what we are worse is that the scale of operation is too small, which is an important obstacle factor restricting agriculture in China, Japan and South Korea. Through decades of research and visits to a number of countries, I put the world's agricultural scale of operation is broadly divided into five major types, the first is the super-large scale of agricultural operations, people's scale of operation is 5 digits is 10,000 acres, six digits more than 100,000 acres, I visited Australia in December of the previous year with the State Council and a few other counsellors, people in a family farms of tens of thousands of acres is the usual, more than 100,000 acres, two hundred thousand acres family farms are also available. Farms also have, such a scale is equivalent to the cultivated area of a small county, larger than the size of our townships, the second type is a large-scale operation, like the United States, the scale of operation is a four-digit number is a few thousand acres, and the third is a medium-sized scale of operation, is a few hundred acres. Like the EU average is so a look, the fourth is a small scale of operation, this is including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province of China is a double-digit is a few dozen acres of look. Horiguchi Kenji: First of all, I would like to answer Prof. Cheng Guoqiang two questions in the morning, the first question is Japan has long been restricted industrial and commercial capital to enter the agricultural industry, and now under the policy of the Democratic Party can be allowed under the capital of the limited liability company to enter the agricultural industry. The main reason is the restriction of Japan's agricultural land law, which stipulates that individuals and organizations other than farmers cannot acquire agricultural land, and this law is still in force. The policy now allows all individuals and corporations, including joint-stock companies, to borrow or rent farmland. The right of joint-stock companies to purchase farmland is still strictly limited. The Farmland Act was enacted to protect the interests of farmers who had acquired land and to prevent them from being deprived of their land again and from being subjected to unfavorable conditions such as the regeneration of landowners' right to control the land. After the rapid economic growth, the law has been adjusted several times, and now it is possible to lease land freely. The reason why there is a strict restriction on the acquisition of agricultural land by a joint-stock company is that a joint-stock company, whose basic form of capital is in the form of shares, can reorganize its assets by transferring and trading its shares, and if a joint-stock company acquires the right to own agricultural land, it may be able to convert the final use of the land from agriculture to other uses, such as the construction of a villa, through the purchase and sale of its shares. [05-29 14:59]

Kenji Horiguchi: Now that we are allowing joint-stock companies to participate in agriculture, we have opened up a lot of the provisions of the Agricultural Land Law, but in reality there are not a lot of joint-stock companies participating in agriculture after the opening up of the law. Joint-stock companies participate in any economic activity is to make a profit, and now agriculture is not profitable, which is why the joint-stock companies are allowed to participate in agriculture in the policy, but the real participation in agriculture is very few. In Japan, land is still expensive, so the cost of buying or leasing land to participate in agricultural production activities is very high, and most farmers and agricultural operators rely on the land inherited from their parents to run their farms, so how to cooperate with those who have the right to manage land is the way of doing business now. This is the way of management nowadays. In Niigata, there is a 300-household joint-stock farmers' cooperative, and I will explain a little bit about this. These 300 households formed a joint-stock company and entrusted all of their original single-family agricultural production activities to this joint-stock company for specialized agricultural production. Previously, the village also has a professional agricultural production of professional farmers, but it is difficult for him to obtain from the 300 families of other people's land and the right to operate, 300 households *** with the formation of such a joint stock company on behalf of the interests of everyone *** with the business may be able to obtain the business of agricultural intensification. [05-29 15:02]

Kenji Horiguchi: Then, the 300 shareholders can not only get shareholders' dividends but also get paid for the production of this farmland through their own leased farmland. Because intensive production has led to higher yields of rice production, soybeans and wheat production efficiency has also increased, so the income from agricultural products combined with the share dividend allows them to earn a satisfactory income. Although land is privately owned in Japan, most farmers are reluctant to give up their property rights because they will lose it forever when it is sold or transferred, but leasing or consigning it to someone else for farming is acceptable to farmers. At the same time, the joint-stock company's operation will be more flexible, no labor or can not take care of agricultural production of farmers can be contracted to the joint-stock company to cultivate the land. Farmers who have a certain degree of labor capacity or want to continue to engage in agricultural production, can only be one of the harvesting season or the need to use agricultural machinery season entrusted to the joint-stock company, the other agricultural work can also be done independently. Of course, such a successful case is not much, because this kind of intensive agricultural production is relatively need to be a collective resolution, hundreds of families to reach a completely unanimous agreement before it is possible to achieve, such a group of agricultural operations face very much resistance, need to carry out more communication costs before it is possible to reach. [05-29 15:08]

Kenji Horiguchi: The second question is that Mr. Cheng Guoqiang said that the scale of subsidies for agricultural operators in China and Japan is very different, and that how Japan realizes the supervision and implementation of the management of the agricultural subsidies, I would like to give a brief answer to this. In April of this year, there is a direct compensation system for paddy field prices, and there are 2.4 to 2.5 million rice-growing households who have joined agricultural insurance, and they have basic data on their agricultural operations in their insurance companies. After the war and continuing to this day, Japan actually has a mandatory insurance system for rice cultivation, and this system is mandatory for all paddy farmers. Every year, rice farmers have to declare to the local government the size of their paddy fields and the details of the crops grown on each plot, whether it is rice or other crops or fallow. And it is supervised and confirmed by the township government and the Farmers' Association jointly. The amount of subsidy this time is a uniform price subsidy across the country as long as the farmers who participate in this adjustment of paddy cultivation area, you can get every 0.1 hectare to get 15,000 yen compensation, whether you will be paddy cultivation of soybeans or wheat or other uses, such as rice flour bio-energy, rice cultivation used can be obtained. So this price subsidy is not based on each plot of land with the market price difference than the unified market price and the price of the year after the estimation of a uniform price, then the whole country paddy is 0.1 hectare 15,000 yen, paddy adjustment, planting soybeans wheat is a hectare of 35,000 yen, a unified estimate of the price of the subsidy. [05-29 15:10]

Shimizu Chulan: I would like to add, first of all, the participation of joint-stock companies in agricultural production. About joint-stock company participation in agriculture today there are also students asked about the right of use and ownership of one, whether it will make the efficiency of agricultural production affected, also said agriculture two mistakes, I would like to combine these to express my point of view. Most countries do not allow joint-stock companies to participate freely in agriculture, both the United States and France. Japan is relatively free to allow corporatization to participate in the livestock industry, while agriculture is more strictly restricted. I think such a restriction is right. Joint-stock companies are allowed to operate in agriculture is in 03 years when the Koizumi regime carried out structural adjustment reforms, the establishment of special reform zones is Koizumi reform special zones to allow experimental joint-stock companies to participate in agriculture legalized, and now even at present is the joint-stock company to participate in agriculture conditions have a very strict review. For example, there are restrictions on the participation of local residents in joint-stock companies, and joint-stock companies must not be detrimental to the interests of local residents. The reason why joint-stock companies are not allowed to participate in agriculture or not allowed to acquire farmland is because the shares, in principle, must be freely tradable. [05-29 15:16]

Cheron Shimizu: Even if the joint-stock company initially operated the farmland with the good intention of revitalizing the local economy and contributing to the regional economy, the shares are transferable, and the recent recapitalization of the shares by the global financial investment fund, along with the purchase and sale of the shares, may have made the company deviate from its original intention. In Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have opened up the participation of joint-stock companies in agricultural management, believing that the participation of joint-stock companies in agriculture can be realized on the basis of enhanced supervision. However, it is clear from today's financial crisis that joint-stock companies, like those in the U.S., are subject to greater risks. Although Japan has not yet fully opened up agriculture to joint-stock companies, I think this process is enough to cause alarm in China that joint-stock companies should not be allowed to enter agriculture so easily. [05-29 15:18]

Ichiro Oshima: Thank you, and Mr. Lee from South Korea, what are his thoughts. [05-29 15:19]

Lee Fan-seok: The question is about cooperatives, let me briefly explain how an agricultural association is set up and what are its functions? What is the case with cooperatives and joint-stock companies? As we all know, a cooperative is a voluntary association of people to realize the ****same economy through public ****ownership and ethnic management, the cooperative principle is a self-governing organization of people who voluntarily unite to realize the ****same economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through ****same ownership and ethnic management of the business body. There is a difference between the cooperative principle and the joint-stock company. Agriculture, farming, and forestry are participating in cooperatives, so Korean agricultural cooperatives are learning from Japanese agricultural cooperatives, and Korean agricultural cooperatives are mainly set up for the purpose of improving the quality of life of farmers by improving the economic, social, and cultural status of farmers and the competitiveness of agriculture through improving the economic, social, and cultural status of farmers, and to ensure the balance of agricultural operations, and that is the problem of the cooperatives, and the cooperatives can't be real cooperatives if they don't have any money. The source of profit is the profit of the bank, so the Agricultural Bank of Korea and the Korea Agricultural Cooperative Central Association were merged, and in '61, we were the most centralized farmers' cooperative was the Ridong Farmers' Cooperative Association, and at that time there were 21.042 farmers' cooperatives established. Later, 1,500 farmers' associations were merged, and the difference between the Korean and Japanese farmers' associations is that we do banking and economic business together with rural production and sales, while in Japan, it is the Central Bank of Agriculture and Forestry, which is the banking industry, and the National Agricultural Cooperative Association Central Committee. Now the comprehensive service-oriented farmers' association is economic business. There is also cultivation of synergistic integrated organization, a lot of business together, this is the characteristics of the Korean Farmers' Association. [05-29 15:20]

Ichiro Oshima: Mr. Chulang Shimizu will add a question about the Nonghyup. [05-29 15:42]

Cheron Shimizu: The Japanese and Korean Nonghyups are very similar in terms of organization, and the majority of farmers are involved in Nonghyups. Now there are about 700 Nonghyup organizations and 20,000 Nonghyup business sites in Japan, and 220,000 people are employed in the Nonghyup system. There are 9 million cooperative members of the Nonghyup, and the Nonghyup has the lion's share of both the market share of agricultural products and the share of the financial market in rural areas. The fact that they are too powerful has, on the contrary, given rise to a number of problems. As we mentioned this morning, in order to promote the development of the Association, the Government has provided a lot of subsidies to the Association, including subsidies for agricultural production facilities and financial subsidies. However, no matter what kind of problems or difficulties the Nonghyups have or have not solved so far, objectively speaking, the Nonghyups have contributed a lot to the development of Japan's agriculture and agriculture, especially in the promotion of economic development in the countryside, and also in the democratization of the countryside through the joint marketing of agricultural products and the strengthening of the consultation process among farmers, in which the Nonghyups have been very important. [05-29 15:46]

Liu Zhiren: Our topic is particularly natural to turn to the rural organization, I will make my suggestion, I always think that China's rural reform in the past 30 years has achieved great success, but there are also many shortcomings. There are also many mistakes, just now Professor Li Changping said in his speech, I think our farmers organization seriously lagging behind, is our rural reform in the past 30 years a major shortcoming. It should be said that before the rural reform, China's rural organization is the highest in the world, just now the Japanese friend said, they are now joining the Agricultural Association of the joining rate is almost 100%, we in the reform of the Chinese farmers to join the People's Commune joining rate is almost 100%, but 30 years through the reform we feel that the People's Commune management system does not meet the realities of China, we abandoned it, this is right. But you abandoned the old, to quickly have a new replacement for it, this work is seriously lagging behind, after the last 20 years of exploration, gradually formed our now, at this stage to implement professional cooperatives, that is, farmers' professional cooperatives, should be said to be the whole discussion of the last decade or so more, based on this, in 2007, the state passed the law on farmers' professional cooperatives, promulgated and implemented. [05-29 15:50]

Liu Zhiren: My teacher is also the chief architect of China's rural reform, Mr. Du, he has always been concerned about the organization of Chinese farmers, in 1986, Mr. Du led a group of scholars to visit Japan, should be the invitation of the Central Committee of the Japanese Farmers' Association, and came back after the old man to the main person in charge of the time to suggest that we also want to engage in such an organization, but due to a variety of reasons have not been engaged in! I personally observed Japan, Korea Farmers' Association, including Taiwan Province Farmers' Association observed for more than 40 years, Korean friends have been introduced to the Korean Farmers' Association, Shimizu Chulang introduced the Japan Farmers' Association, we are now professional farmers' cooperatives, and Japan, Korea Farmers' Association and there is a big difference. Farmers professional cooperatives are different from the Japanese and Korean professional agricultural associations, of course, there is a great distance, but we are particularly pleased that, since the promulgation and implementation of the Law on Farmers' Professional Cooperatives, the last two years have undergone great changes, and recently we talked with the Ministry of Agriculture, we are now at the end of 2009, in accordance with the Law on Farmers' Professional Cooperatives across the country, in the administration for industry and commerce to register farmers' professional cooperatives a ** **. ** There are 246,400, South Korea said a *** there are 220,000, we have reached 240,000, more than double the 08 growth in actual accession to the farmers' professional cooperatives have more than 21 million households, but still face many problems. The biggest problem of farmers' organization is that the coverage of professional cooperatives is too small, we have more than 250 million farmers, only 21 million farmers to join, in fact, we joined the rate of just 8.2%. [05-29 15:52]

Liu Zhiren: That is to say, nearly 92% of the farmers are still outside of an organization, they are in a helpless, isolated state, so how to improve the level of farmers' organization in the future is not only to overcome the operating area of a small and effective way, but also to improve the political status of the farmers, to improve the income of farmers, to improve the quality of agricultural products, to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, the most urgent issue. It is also the most urgent topic to improve the political status of farmers, increase their income, improve the quality of agricultural products and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas. Think of all the classes in China, which class is not organized. And the largest, most vulnerable groups do not have their own organizations, today March the National People's Congress passed the future election, is the farmers and city people are the same rights, the same vote this is a great progress, in order to achieve the same rights of farmers, the same vote, the degree of organization of farmers is crucial, Japan and South Korea, the Farmers' Association is the interests of farmers on behalf of the interests of farmers, our farmers' interests on behalf of who is, is the local government? So as soon as possible to improve the level of farmer organization, which is the solution to China's current agricultural problems, the construction of new rural areas is a bottleneck. To this end, our Counselor of the State Council, this year, how to improve the level of organization of farmers, set as an important topic, is now being researched. There may be a lot of friends do not understand the State Council Counselor's main responsibilities are, our mission is this, through investigation, research, listening to the people's voices, put forward some of our recommendations to solve the problem, sent directly to the central government.

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