The experience and practice of "merging small fields into large fields" derived from the rural reform and innovation practice of Yancheng City, Jiangsu province, has been included in the No. 1 central document in 2023 that was officially released recently.
The fragmentation of cultivated land is not only detrimental to the application of agricultural machinery and information technology, but also has great constraints on the appropriate scale of land management and the increase of farmers' income.
The main measures include humanized land allocation, invigorating land management rights, and adjusting the spatial layout of land blocks. Other measures include the integration of small plots into large strips, the modernization of farming, the construction of family farm cluster areas, the unified implementation of social services, and the realization of whole-process mechanization.
"Since the implementation of the 'merging small fields into large fields' project in Mingliang Village in 2021, 1479.71 mu of land transferred in summer and autumn involves 465 farmers, with the income rent of 950 yuan per mu, which can increase the income of the village collective by more than 95 thousand yuan per year." Bian Mingrong, Secretary of General Party Branch of Mingliang Village, Biancang Town, Tinghu District, Yancheng City said.
With the initial results of the pilot work, Tinghu District of Yancheng City expanded the scope of reform to the whole district.
After the reform, 362.2 thousand mu of contracted land in the whole region was merged from 197.5 thousand to 40.8 thousand, supporting the construction of high-standard farmland, adding more than 42 thousand mu of high-yield farmland, and increasing the land transfer rate from about 60% to 78.6%.
As the only area in the country to undertake the pilot task of "merging small fields into large fields", by the end of 2022, Yancheng has implemented reforms in 36 towns and 134 villages, involving a contracted land area of 502.7 thousand mu.
