The Ministry of Land and Resources announced on Friday that local governments should work out new standards for determining values of arable land requisitioned from farmers as soon as possible.

The demand is in line with the ministry's guidelines released last November, which stated that more factors, such as the types and quality of arable land, farmers' input, prices of primary products, the local economic situation and social security costs should be considered when deciding compensation for farmers whose arable land is grabbed for non-agricultural uses.

Currently the policy is that farmers should be paid 10-16 times, and at most 30 times, the value of the average annual output of arable land over the previous three years.

If the new guidelines are strictly adhered to, these compensation standards will rise, which will of course be in farmers' interests.

More importantly, land valuation methods will become more acceptable to farmers that are to be pushed off their land, helping ease tension with property developers.

In China, farmland is owned collectively. According to law, the State is entitled to requisition farmland "for public use," with farmers being compensated.

But in practice, ideas of what constitutes the public interest have been stretched, and farmland has been used instead for commercial ventures. Usually land is requisitioned and then sold on the open market by the government, at a much higher price than the compensation received by the farmers even inflated by a factor of up to 20.

By the end of last year, at least 40 million farmers had lost land to property development, industrial zones and other uses, according to Xinhua News Agency.

In rural areas, basic social security and medical care systems are yet to be established. Land remains the only lifeline of farmers. The current compensation standards fall short of the actual need of farmers that no longer have land to sustain their livelihood.

Feeling hard done by because they have been inadequately compensated, some farmers refuse to have their land taken away, leading to tension and even conflicts.

Given the large number of farmers losing their arable land to the country's urbanization and property development drive, serious social problems may occur if the current injustice goes unchecked. It is imperative that the government act to protect farmers' interests.

The guidelines are a positive sign that the government has paid heed to the problems and is taking measures to solve them.

As the land management law caps compensation, there is not much room for farmers to be given more compensation in the requisitioning process, even if ministerial directives are fully respected by local governments.

The requisitioning of farmland must be supervised to ensure the process be for the greater good, and not just to turn a quick profit.

If land is to be developed for commercial use, farmers' rights to negotiate with property developers should be respected so that compensation is acceptable to both parties, following unrestricted negotiations.

An equitable judicial system is indispensable as it ensures conflicts of interest are kept to a minimum.

The government must remain independent of land rights deals between farmers and developers.

Statistics show many local governments have pocketed huge amounts of money from selling requisitioned land to the market. This must stop.

(China Daily August 16, 2005)