The rural land contract system allows farmer households to sign deals with countryside authorities to use and manage land for their own benefits.

But it has been undermined by arbitrary shortening of the length of contracts and frequent changes of the ownership of land use rights with administrative decrees by some local authorities.

To tackle the problem, the government decided in 1993 to extend the terms of such land use contracts by another 30 years.

The law on rural land contracts is designed to stabilize the existing household contract system in the form of national legislation.

It entitles farmers with long-term and guaranteed rights to use their contracted land, and ultimately promotes economic development and the stability of the rural society, according to sources with the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature in the nation.

The law ensures that farmers' rights to use land under contract will not be changed for at least 30 years. It stipulates that the term of the contract is 30 years for plough land, 30 to 50 years for grassland and 30 to 70 years for woodland.

The law also has provisions concerning principles and procedures for signing such contracts, transfers and the re-contracting of land use rights under contract.

The latest session of the Standing Committee of the NPC, which closed yesterday, endorsed two more laws on water resources and mapping.

The session also passed the lists of councils for electing deputies to the 10th NPC in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

It rectified the Charter for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and an extradition agreement between China and Laos.

(China Daily August 30, 2002 )