China's farmers will be allowed to transfer their land-use rights, Chinese President Hu Jintao said this week, signalling an important shift in the country's land management system.China's rural citizens, who number more than 730 million according to a 2006 census, own the product of their land but not the land itself, and are barred from trading their land-use rights under current laws.
"Farmers will be allowed to transfer land contract and management rights by various means, in accordance with their will," Hu was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying during a visit to Anhui province.
New rules are expected to be unveiled at a key Communist Party meeting starting on Oct. 9. Hu said policy changes would not overturn the existing "household contract responsibility system," under which land-use rights are granted to farmers for a period of 30 years.
With the land itself still collectively owned, the system has been rife with abuse. Local governments have seized rural plots to sell to factories and property developers, often paying only minimal compensation to farmers.
Thousands of protests against land grabs every year have alarmed Beijing, prompting discussions about how to give farmers greater security in their land rights, if not outright ownership.
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