A Study On The Development Of Chinese Family Farms

Who will farm and How to farm? This problem has increasingly become a hotspot of social attention, which is the core issue of Chinese agricultural modernization, directly related to the consolidation and improvement of rural basic management systems, and related to the vital interests of millions of peasants. From a global perspective, the family farm is the most efficient and reliable agricultural production and management method, which is widely used in western countries. And its importance is being rediscovered in the 21st century today. From China’s domestic situation, the system of house-hold cooperative production responsibility which appeared in the rural economic reform of china occurring in the late 80’s of twentieth century, has greatly contributed to the liberation and development of agricultural productivity. Therefore our agricultural production has re-taken the farm household production and management method, which is the most traditional and the most viable way of agricultural production and operation. However, such a household contract responsibility system, which used an egalitarian way of farmland property configuration, forming a severe ultra-compact, highly decentralized land management scale, has increasingly become an obstacle to the development of the agricultural economy in nowadays. The Innovation of agricultural production and management organization structure to promote agricultural management in proper scale on the premise of insisting and perfecting the rural household contract management system, is required to accelerate agricultural modernization, in line with the law that agricultural production should be adjusted to meet the objective requirements of the development of the law of agricultural productivity. And the family-run farms, which is the upgraded version of the household contract responsibility system, is becoming an effective form of agricultural management in proper scale under collective ownership, because of its convenience of technology, systems and organizational path. The Chinese family farm production and management mode which evolved from the household contract responsibility system under collective ownership, is different from western developed countries’ family farm production and management mode which is based on the private land ownership, therefore has its own features. The family farm with Chinese characteristics that is an important practice form of agricultural management in proper scale under collective ownership, is great innovation of Chinese agricultural production and operation system, and also an effective way to break the "three rural" issue.Combining theory with practice, this paper are trying to make a systematic and comprehensive study on the development of Chinese family farms.Firstly,this paper will discuss the meaning and significance and characteristics of Chinese family farms, and then sort out the importance, realistic motives and constraints for promoting the development of Chinese family farms at the present stage. Then this paper will analysis the development situation and typical practice patterns of Chinese family farms,and make a discussion on the foreign cooperation in the development of Chinese family farms.Following that, the main problems existing in the development of Chinese family farms and their causes are discussed. Finally, this paper will put forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote the development of Chinese family farms based on the foreign experience.