Analysis On Performance Differences Between Final Management And Maintenance Modes Of Rural Land Consolidation Projects And Its Reasons

This paper firstly summarised the literatures of the performance evaluation of land management and rural land consolidation(RLC) and clearly displayed the concepts and contents of final management and maintenance of rural land consolidation projects(FMMRLCP) and its performance; the paper also gave information about the general process of FMMRLCP and the feature of different FMMRLCP modes by summarising the national and provincial regulations and the specific measures of FMMRLCP taken in related areas. Secondly, this paper builded a progressive catastrophe model of FMMRLCP using catastrophe progression method and the basic idea of the balanced score card(BSC), which achieved the quantitative analysis of the differences of the performance between two modes of FMMRLCP. Thirdly, based on the transaction costs theory of Williamson, this paper builded an indicator system to measure the transaction costs from three aspects: asset specificity, uncertainty and transaction frequency. Method of case study was used to compare the mode of village committee management and maintenance in Dengzhou of Henan province with the mode of farmers joint households management and maintenance in Longzhou of Guangxi province to figure out the reasons which leaded to the differences of the performance. Lastly, this paper presented several strategies to improve the performance of these two modes. The main conclusions were as follows:(1) There were several modes of FMMRLCP practically. Currently, four main modes were as follows: a mode of village committee management and maintenance, a mode of farmers’ organizations management and maintenance, a mode of personal management and maintenance and a mode of farmers joint households management and maintenance. These four modes differed in their main bodies, objects, channels of funding sources and measures. However, this paper found five similar features of these four modes:(1) their main bodies were diversification,(2) their objects were diverse,(3) their channels of funding sources were extensive and strongly supported,(4) their measures were desirable and(5) their practical work was long-term. Moreover, they had similar work procedures:(1) formulating the manuals of FMMRLCP, including learning government policies and regulations to draft the manuals, discussing the draft through villager congress and publicizing manuals.(2) implementing the FMMRLCP, including inspecting the project area, stopping the acts of vandalism, mediating dissensions and organizing the management and maintenance.(3) supervising the work of FMMRLCP.(2) The performance level of FMMRLCP was high in the study area, however there were some differences between two modes. The farmers’ cognition of FMMRLCP was generally good, and the farmers’ cognition of the mode of farmers joint households management and maintenance in Longzhou was better than the mode of village committee management and maintenance in Dengzhou. The proportion of farmer participation of FMMRLCP in the study area was not high, and the proportion of farmer participation of the mode of farmers joint households management and maintenance in Longzhou was higher than the mode of village committee management and maintenance in Dengzhou. Overall, the performance levels of FMMRLCP in these two study areas were both high; from the perspective of different modes of FMMRLCP, there were differences between two modes and the performance level of the mode of farmers joint households management and maintenance in Longzhou was higher than the mode of village committee management and maintenance in Dengzhou.(3) The level of the performance of FMMRLCP depended on the level of the transaction costs. Different modes of FMMRLCP had different transaction costs, therefore the performance was different. Negative correlation existed between transaction costs and performance of FMMRLCP. This paper analyzed different modes of FMMRLCP based on three dimensions of transaction costs. According to results of descriptive analysis, the mode of farmers joint households management and maintenance in Longzhou had lower transaction costs and higher performance, while the mode of village committee management and maintenance in Dengzhou had higher transaction costs and lower performance. Based on the results of conometric analysis, variables from each dimension all had a significant impact on the performance of FMMRLCP. From dimension of asset specificity, ―the distance from village to center of the town‖ was a significant variable. From dimension of uncertainty, ―the degree of importance village cadres perceiving to FMMRLCP‖ and ―the degree of recognition village cardres toward the modes of FMMRLCP‖ had a significant impact on the performance of FMMRLCP. From the dimension of transaction frequency, ―the frequency of inspections‖ was a significant variable.Therefore, in order to enhance the performance of FMMRLCP, this paper proposed the following policies and recommendations:(1) Relevant departments of the local government should strengthen the system of FMMRLCP, and the government should strengthen the education of farmers to understand the related policies better.(2) A reasonable participation mechanism for farmers should be established.(3) Learning and development of final management and maintenance organizations should be attached enough importance on.(4) Stable sources and sufficient supply of funds should be guaranteed for FMMRLCP.(5) The construction of rural roads should be strengthened and we should narrow the gap between city and rural area.(6) Deeply thinking about the existing modes of FMMRLCP to make it suitable to local conditions and development.(7) Practically implementing the work of FMMRLCP and fully fulfilling the function of facilities in projects.