Rational Peasants: Peasants' Choice On Land Circulation Modes

The peasants group is the largest group in China, and it is very important to accurately comprehend the action of this group. To comprehend the action of peasants, we should firstly know their action orientation. This article is rightly to discuss peasants'action orientation on the basis of their choice on land circulation modes.There are six parts of this article. The first part is an introduction. The second part is theory, to define some basic concepts, to introduce and to comment on theory. The third part, major modes of land circulation and peasants'choice, is to discuss the role of various actors in the process of land circulation, to introduce the present situation of land circulation in CHONGQING municipality and some related districts, to introduce modes of land circulation and peasants'choice, to discuss peasants'consideration, and to propose the core issue. The forth part, relationship between peasants'old-age security and land circulation, is to learn the development of peasants'old-age security in China, to analyze the current situation and problems of peasants'old-age security in CHONGQING municipality, and to probe peasants'chief consideration and its necessity. The fifth part, relationship between rural labor transfer and land circulation, is to comparatively analyze peasants'agricultural income, non- agricultural income and the economic benefits of land circulation, to probe peasants'main consideration and its necessity. The sixth part is a conclusion.At present, subcontracting, leasing, transferring, exchanging, sharing are major modes of land circulation; peasants prefer subcontracting and leasing more than other modes, but subcontracting can not bring economic benefits, leasing can not bring more economic benefits than sharing. On the other hand, the government and some academics like to stress the economic benefits of land circulation, it seems that the economic benefits of land circulation is the driving force of peasants'circulating land, and also peasants will mainly considerate the economic benefits of land circulation. Obviously, this is contradictory.In fact, peasants'main evaluation criterion of land circulation modes is not the economic benefits of land circulation, but the period of land circulation, whether or not the mode will make them lose the land contract, and whether or not the mode will make it easy for them to engage in non-agricultural industries. And these three evaluation criterions reflect that peasants will mainly think of two things, the first is the issue of old-age security, the second is the issue of engaging in non-agricultural industries to subjoin their income.In China, Family support has always played a more important role on peasants'old-age security than collective security and social security, but now, they all have problems, the level of old-age security is still low, and the role of land is still prominent. Therefore, when peasants decide to choose a mode of land circulation, they will consider whether or not they can still have a stable land contract, except they have an expected, stable, and high level old-age security.Nowadays, peasants'agricultural income increases slowly, getting a lower and lower percentage, but the non-agricultural income increases quite fast, getting a higher and higher percentage, has become the major driving force for peasants to subjoin their income; besides, relatively to the non-agricultural income, the economic benefits of land circulation is not impressive, contributing little to the income of peasants. Therefore, when peasants are in the choice of land circulation modes, they will focus on transferring labor force to non-agricultural industries, but not the economic benefits of land circulation itself, although it is what they are willing to accept.Obviously, Peasants'choice is a result of a combination of long-term consideration with current consideration, and also a result of comparing all incomes, it is a rational orientation. And now, the survival of Chinese peasants has been resolved, they are seeking to maximize their revenue on the basis of a stable and high level of old-age security, they are rational peasants.