Study Of China's Rural Homestead System

Agriculture supplies human beings with basic materials.Agriculture is also the basic industry for manufacture and economic growth. Although agriculture is so important, it remains complex on how to treat it. Every government policy would distort market, This kind of distortions will do harm to the efficiency of resources distribution. Hence the benefits which agriculture, rural areas and peasants gain from the government are less than what government supplies.The difference is efficiency loss. At some extreme situations like what happened in Wenchuan after the earthquake, the benefits are less than zero.Land is one of the basic materials for human beings.Land is the most basic factor for manufacture and very important for economic and social development.Foreign research on land gains lots of fruits systematically and comprehensively. Especially in recent years, some important views have been accepted, such as ensuring land ownership, strengthening land rights, expanding land renting market, enhancing government's function on resources configuration and usage efficiency of land. At the same time, there are also lots of books and articles on land issues in China too. However the rural land issue of China especially concerning rural housing is very complex and remains unsettled.There are two basic security measures for peasants in China:rural housing land and household contract land. China is one of developing countries.Its social security system is far beyond perfect and especially that in rural areas.It is very important for every peasant to enjoy the rights on land. They are permanent security for them.Rural housing land as an important part of rural land system is quite different from farming land.Besides its ownership is separated from its usufruct, rural housing land's characteristics include weak security on its ownership and strict control and strong security on its usufruct. The rural housing system becomes more and more unsuitable to the increase of population and economic growth.My research put forward that control either on collective ownership or on private ownership would reach institutional equilibrium and increase the efficiency of rural housing land.The comparison among foreign countries further confirms that control reach institutional equilibrium.The ownership of rural housing land belongs to collectivity, while its usufruct belongs to private persons.Rural housing land has exclusive character and is under transition control which boost the efficiency of the land and ensure that every peasant may enjoy the average benefit from that kind of land. Since there are still a lot of spaces that are not defined in the field of rural housing land, some of the spaces are required to be defined along economic growth. Because of the growth of economy, the value of rural housing land will go up and be diversified. Hence there will be more and more request to define the unclear spaces. At present rural housing land system has some problems which should be settled:(1)efficient usage of the land;(2) larger externality; (3) sufficient investments on infrastructure; (4) lack of efficient management on rural housing land from the collectivity. If no reform is made to settle these problems, rural housing land will be chased more and more severely and that will lead to more and more conflicts. Hence now there are some villages which have made efforts to innovate rural housing land system.It is the most desirable dream of every peasant to have a decent house. Rural Housing Land System can be considered as a security system for rural residents and can secure peasants'right to live in a house. This security is very important for peasants especially when economy grows rapidly and social society changes greatly. The System could stimulate rural surplus labors to work in cities securely. Hence it is also a stable mechanism to keep away from the uncertain risks of urbanization and industrialization. China will be in rapid urbanization in the following twenty to thirty years and the stable mechanism which rural areas can supply is significant for China's future. Rural Housing Land System must be adjusted to meet such request.There are some prerequisites to the reform on Rural Housing Land System. These include keeping collective ownership of housing land, enhancing the management capability of collective economic organizations and powerful explanation on the rights concerning rural housing land.I suggest the reform on Rural Housing Land System be adjusted in a gradual way, contribute to safeguarding collective ownership, strengthen the strict control institutions on rural housing land, accurately define the usufruct of rural housing land and safeguard it, strictly control the transition of rural housing land,permit rent transactions, strengthen rural planning, build rural housing management system, support legal and permitted rural housing built-up on housing lands, keep rural housing land policy relatively stable, secure peasants'basic right to live in a house, play rural housing land's function on social security and secure the sustainable healthy growth of society and economy.