Land consolidation for rural sustainability in China: Practical reflections and policy implications

The dual land system restricts the sustainable development of rural China which undergoes rapid depopulation and abandoned and inefficiently used land. The viewpoint paper reviews the typical rural land system and reflects the land consolidation project in a village community of Shandong Province. It indicates that land consolidation is needed to coordinate and improve the changing human-land relationship in rural China. Certain policy terms and stipulations could be set to encourage the transfer of peasant's land operation right and promote scale land operation. And, an expanded rural land market is needed to enhance the value of peasants' residential land to reverse village hollowing problem. Finally, the paper highlights that rural land consolidation is a systematic project and should be implemented by respecting local stakeholders' willingness and request.