Implications on the new land reform in China

A colleague and I were chatting about what Gartman wrote in his letter. With individuals in China being able to own land, Gartman asserted that farmers will become more productive. What are the other implications?

(1) Will farmers, in an effort to boost yield, "overwork" their land? With heavy use of fertilizers and little crop rotation, they can raise their standard of living quickly, but sacrifice the longer term productivity of the land.

(2) How much effort will there be to educate people with their newfound right to own land? Are there enough legal safeguards against exploitation? When people's standard of living is rather low, some may be persuaded to sell their land or effectively give up their claim on the cheap. Besides more education, perhaps individual owners can form some kind of cooperatives and bargain collectively to gain leverage, just like labor negotiations.

(3) Aside from the land-related issues, how will this reform impact the demographics in those places, now that people may have more incentives as agri-entrepreneurs, instead of being de facto peasants? There had been a talent drain as many able adults left the countryside to work in cities. Although they did earn more, families were also separated and children grew up not seeing their parents, ripping apart the delicate family fabric. Children were also not receiving the complementary education from being with their parents.

With ownership of their own land, would they decide to stay? If that is partly the objective of the new legislation, what are other support functions available to keep people there? I do not know how popular micro-lending is, but it may be helpful to expand that to help develop both the core agri-businesses and other supporting activities. Maybe financial institutions like the Agricultural Bank of China can continue to play a major role in that regard.