Transforming rural housing land to farmland in Chongqing, China: The land coupon approach and farmers’ complaints

Abstract

Rapid urbanization in China since 1978 has created enormous pressure on farmland, which is encroached by not only urban expansion but also rural construction of peasant housing and services. As a land-use planning and management response, the Central Government endorsed a policy that bundles the reduction of rural construction land with the increase of urban built-up area, thus making it possible to connect the two seemingly contradictory processes between adding on to and taking off from the farmland bank by reclamation of rural construction sites and urban expansion respectively. This paper contributes to an emerging literature on the study of transformation of rural construction land by examining the land coupon approach and the associated complaints from the participating farmers in Chongqing, China. Data are collected from a government online feedback platform, supplemented by public policy documents. The findings reveal that the land coupon approach is a kaleidoscope that demonstrates a wide range of players in the farmland reclamation process. Farmers go through a lengthy and complicated process shaped by historical inconsistencies of policies, rent-seeking individuals and organizations, and market uncertainties. Their complaints focused on tangible issues especially on compensation payment, but intangible issues such as local and national policy intentions were totally ignored. Farmland reclamation is set to create landless farmers with poor social and financial security, which deserves attention in rethinking the land policies.