"The standards of compensation for acquisition of farmland should be raised, and the basic net of social security should cover farmers who have lost their land," national lawmaker Liu Minghua said Sunday.

Liu was among at least 200 legislators who have signed several motions, submitted during the annual meeting of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, calling for conscientious efforts to protect the interests of landless rural residents.

Complaints by farmers that they were inadequately compensated or lacked subsistence income after their land was taken have been on the rise in recent years. At least 40 million farmers have lost land to real estate development, industrial zones and other uses, according to a Xinhua report.

The government has tightened screening of plans for development zones of all types to stop disorderly and unauthorized acquisition of farmland. It is working to ensure appropriate compensation for expropriated or requisitioned land.

In many regions, when land is taken for non-agricultural purposes it is usually the local governments, not the farmers, that have the final say with regard to price and compensation, according to Liu.

Citing his hometown of Chongqing as an example, Liu said that on average, a farmer gets only 21,000 yuan (US$2,530) for compensation and resettlement fees.

"Calculated on urban consumption standards, that sum is just enough for a little more than three years of living," he said. "Not well-educated and short of skills, farmers often have a hard time when the money runs out."

Li Yongzhong, a legislator from Guangdong Province, pointed out that the current standards, based on a guideline issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources last November, set a compensation ceiling of 30 times the average annual output of the arable land in the previous three years.

The figure is usually a fraction of the value of the land when its use rights are sold to third parties, according to Li.

But sometimes even this modest payment fails to reach farmers quickly.

Liu suggested that the authorities enact implementation regulations to ensure farmers have the right to collectively bargain for compensation for requisitioned land. Local governments should withdraw from the actual transaction process and serve as impartial arbitrators. Farmers, when adequately compensated, could be trained and use the money to develop other businesses.

Both Liu and Li proposed a "land for social security" mechanism be piloted to make sure farmers who have lost farmland have access to basic medical services and other social welfare, just as urban residents do.

Chinese lawmakers have consistently spoken up for farmers who no longer have land, saying they need to be supported. At last year's NPC session, 119 legislators called on the authorities to address farmers' complaints.

Part of the outcome is a nationwide drive to clear the backlog in compensation payments. By last November, 16.0 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion), or 91.0 percent of the total amount, had been paid to farmers, according to a February announcement by the Standing Committee of the NPC.

(China Daily March 14, 2005)