Study On Public Policy Of Farmland Conversion In China

The industrialization and urbanization of china have developed rapidly nowadays. Economic growth, urban expansion and industrial assembly are the characters of development in china. All of this determined that the farmland conversion especially the farmland conversion is unavoidable and must adapt to the economic development in the coming period of time. So the losses of resources are inevitable in the process of economic growth. The usage of the resources which belong to the necessary loss of resources is reasonable usage of resources. It also provides an effective way to coordinate the use of resources and the development of economic. The Chinese government has adopted a series of public policies in farmland conversion field since the late 1980s. The aim of that was to solve the "dilemma" about the use of resources and the development of economic. But they did not achieve the desired effects. So we wonder what is the public policy system which consistent with the farmland conversion and the economic development in china, and we wonder what is the model to implement them. The paper introduced some basic theories about resources allocation and public policies and gives some remarks on them, and then it analyses the mechanism of farmland conversion in china and tried to construct the framework of the public policies about farmland conversion in china considering the characteristics and problems in Chinese land conversion process. On the base of this framework, the paper tries to find the characteristics and problems in different stages of policy development and analyses the mechanism and limitations of different types of the public policies in farmland conversion. A case study was made to evaluate the public policies to the farmland conversion in different development stages. It used the data from 1986 to 2006 to establish the models which are about how the combination policies and different types of policies to affect the amount of the farmland conversion. It will be helpful to reform the existing public policy system about farmland conversion by providing some theoretic, according to the general rules that how the policy changes to affect the farmland conversion. Through this study we can reach the following conclusions:Firstly, the construction of the public policies system in land conversion should consider the characteristic of the land conversion field in targeted country and then to select the appropriate policy instruments to construct a rational policies framework. The land conversion in china was different with that in other market economy countries, so the construction of the policies system should reflect its own characteristics. The author illuminated that we can establish the public policy system of farmland conversion in China based on different types of public regulation. We can use the market regulation policies to solve the external problems in market behaviors and use the government regulation policies to solve the external problems in government behaviors. Finally we can find a conclusion which is that the way to solve the external effects in farmland conversion is public regulation and the ultimate goal is to maximize the efficiency of farmland conversion. The establishment of this framework is helpful to solve the problems in land conversion effectively and to evaluate the existing public policies in land conversion fairly by its theoretical values and disquisitive significance.Secondly, the implementation methods of the public policies about farmland conversion in china should accord with the characteristics of policy environments in different development stages. Trough the analysis of the public policies about farmland conversion in china from 1949 to 2007, we can get such conclusions.①There have obvious differences in Chinese public policies about farmland conversion allocation in different development stages. It has correlation with the China's social-economical development conditions and the feature of land conversion in different development stages. But the coordination of the whole framework still needs to be improved. We can find that the Chinese government has taken more attention to the construction of the market regulation policy from the evolution of the public policies about farmland conversion. The market regulation policies have experienced an evolution which includes "establishment→standardization→strengthen→improvement" since the reform and opening up. This system was mature correspondingly. The strength and intensity of the administrative regulation policies were the most notable, and the social regulation policies were the second. However, the strength of the economic regulation policies was a little weak. Contrarily, the work to construct the government regulation policies was not very good. The government has paid more attention on it since 2000 than before. So we can get a conclusion that we may pay more attention on the construction of the economic regulation policies and the government regulation policies in the reform of public policies about farmland conversion.②The public policies about farmland conversion have played a certain role to control the farmland conversion in china. But the overall policy framework still needs to be improved in adapting to social-economical development and the changes in land conversion significantly. On the one hand, they were caused by the inner defect of policy itself that is the defects of market regulation policies, such as distortion of policy selection, worse sustainability of policies, declined adaptation in policies, lagged and short-time supply of the policies. On the other hand, the problems were caused by external variables of policies that are the defects of government regulation policies, such as the problems of double goals mode of policy, difficulty in policy coordination, and reverse effect of policy implementation. At the same time it is worth noting that the single regulation can not solve the basic problem in land conversion just as the DNA which has a powerful self-replication. Hence the solution of these problems must be based on the integration of these two types of policy issues. Then we can provide some feasible and appropriate ideas on improving the public policies in Chinese land conversion.Thirdly, the instruments of public policies in land conversion should adapt to the special requirements in specific development stages. The difference policy environment need difference policy instruments. The adjustment of the policy framework should accord with the changes of the policy instruments in different policy environments. Otherwise the effectiveness of the policy system will declined because the instruments can not adapt to the environment. Through the analysis of the features, the mechanism and the implementation of both the market regulation policies and the government regulation policies in Chinese land conversion, we can find such conclusions.①The market regulation policies about farmland conversion has played a certain role to control the trends of farmland conversion in china. But the market regulation policies lagged to adapt to the new problems and new changes. And the types, standards and measures of impunity have become increasingly unable to meet the requirements to control the situation nowadays. So we should reduced the administrative regulation policies, adjust the direction of the social policies regulation policies and strength the economic regulation policies gradually. Then we can promote the transaction that from the administrative and social regulation policies-oriented policy system to the economic regulation policies-oriented policy system in market regulation policies about farmland conversion in china.②The government regulation policies about farmland conversion has played a certain role to control the trends of farmland conversion in china. But from the development trend of policy evolution, this type of policy can not adapt to the changes of the government actions in land conversion. So we should strength the incentive regulation policies and promote the research and practice of the deregulation policies. The government regulation policy system which has both the incentive regulation policies and the deregulation policies about the farmland conversion in china should be established. Fourthly, by studying different time (1986～2006) policy evolution and the number of farmland conversion, China's farmland conversion types of policy performance, by the following conclusions: China farmland conversion of public policy in controlling the number of non-agricultural land has played a certain positive role in the 1 percent of the significant level, the intensity of public policy for each increase of 1%, farmland conversion will reduce the number of 485.1 %. However, as the socio-economic development and land conversion situation changes, policy effectiveness has declined the role of policy orientation and implementation of strategies to be adjusted.To sum up, the public policies about farmland conversion allocation have played a certain role to control the farmland conversion in china in the specific economic development stages. But now the overall framework can not meet the special requirements in specific development stages and specific policy environments. So the paper suggests that we can improve the framework by adjusting the concept of governance, the coordination of the policy instruments and the adaptation of these instruments. Then we can use public policies to control the farmland conversion allocation effectively.