Practice On The Rural Land Joint Stock-Cooperative System In Southern Jiangsu: Springing Up, Development And Performance Evaluation

Rural land joint stock-cooperative system was a kind of innovation in land property right system by rural household, while insisting household contract responsibility system. Following with the acceleration of urban-rural integration, the rural labor force started transferring to the secondary and tertiary industry. Meanwhile, salary income has become the major income source of inhabitants living in rural areas. As rural households were less dependent on rural land, they preferred to reserve land contract management right out of the traditional concept of land security. Therefore, the practice of rural land joint stock-cooperative system was carried out progressively in the developed areas in our country, because of comprehensive action of various conditions. As the most developed area of Jiangsu province, southern district's rural land joint stock-cooperative system has formed an integrated system with the rapid development.This paper applies the methods of theoretical analysis and empirical research, explaining expected goals of the system on the base of researching on the springing up and development of rural land joint stock-cooperative system. This paper also analyzes the system performance by both qualitative and quantitative methods. Based on this, the paper points out existing problems in the practice on the system, and proposes some policy enlightenment on the rural land joint stock-cooperative system.Firstly, on the base of summarizing research achievements and theories at home and abroad, the paper applies theories of new institutional economics to describe process of springing up and development of rural land joint stock-cooperative system, and points out that rural land joint stock-cooperative system is the result of comprehensive action, by kinds of institutional demand and individual conditions in southern Jiangsu. The paper describes the development status of the system and management methods adopted by cooperative groups, and then summarizes the relative operation mechanisms and problems of it.Secondly, the paper explains the connotation of system performance, which includes triple goals in promoting land circulation, raising rural inhabitants'income and steadying development in rural society. The evaluation of the system performance is divided into two parts:the first part analyzes overall performance qualitatively with statistical data, starting with farmers' welfare; the second part applies fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate the level changes of farmers' welfare before and after entering into cooperative groups, based on Amartya Sen's theory of "feasible ability". The research shows that, generally, the achievements of rural land joint stock-cooperative system are significant and farmers'welfare has increased after they entered into cooperative groups.At the end of this paper, it points out existing problems in the practice on rural land joint stock-cooperative system according to antecedent research results. The paper also proposes policy suggestions on promoting healthy development of rural land joint stock-cooperative system, and discusses on the further research on this area.