China Unleashes Its Farmers

choi

Kevin Hamlin and Dexter Roberts with Xiaoqing Pi, China Unleashes Its Farmers. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Oct 2, 2017.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a ... ave-boosted-incomes

Note:
(a) Summary underneath the title in print: Reforms allowing villagers to rent out their land have raised incomes in some parts of the country (quoting print; the online version uses "boosted" in lieu of "raised.")
(b) The print and online version is the same, excepted noted in (a).

(c) "in 2012, Sihong 江苏省宿迁市 泗洪县 [县东临洪泽湖], a county of about 1 million people, launched a pilot project to test a new land reform policy. For the first time in the more than 60 years the Communist Party had ruled China, farmers were permitted to rent out their land, as long as it continued to be used for agriculture. [A local farmer named] Sun [Zeshun] leased his to a commercial operation called Jiangsu Meiyang Ecological Farming & Forestry Co 江苏美阳生态农林有限公司 [2012- ]. * * * Jiangsu Meiyang rents almost half the 988 acres it tends in Shuanggou township from farmers like Sun. Instead of wheat and rice, the owners grow sweet potatoes 红薯 [番薯 in Taiwan] and sakura tree saplings [景观绿化: company website]. Earnings now average more than 800 yuan per mu (a unit of land equivalent to 0.165 acres) from about 500 yuan before, according to Shuanggou Deputy Mayor Tan Qinglei 双沟镇 [one of three deputy mayors] 副镇长 谈庆雷."
(i)
(A) "去年全国人大常委会将我市泗洪县列为江苏省唯一的国家级 '两权' 抵押贷款试点县。" 宿迁日报, Nov 13, 2016
(B) 两权抵押贷款 started in 2015. "指农村承包土地经营权和农民住房财产权可以依法依规进行抵押贷款,是农村金融制度的重要创新。": Web
(ii) cherry blossom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_blossom
("Many of the varieties [Japanese cherry: Prunus serrulata 桜 or 櫻 Japanese pronunciation: さくら sakura; the species has many cultivars, the most common and imortant being Somei Yoshino 染井 吉野 (Yoshino cultivar from 染井] that have been cultivated for ornamental use do not produce fruit. Edible cherries generally come from cultivars of the related species Prunus avium and Prunus cerasus"_

Both cherry in English and kanji 桜 may mean flower and/or tree. Cherry may also mean fruit, which in Japan is either "sakurambo" (no corresponding kanji) or 桜桃.

(d) "In November of last year, policymakers in Beijing approved a rollout of the land reform tested in Sihong to the rest of the country. The changes are part of a drive to boost China's agricultural output and turn its farmers into consumers * * * Liang Hong 梁红 [a woman; PhD economics from Georgetown University; 1998-2004 sconomist at IMF; currently 中金公司首席经济学家], chief economist at China International Capital Corp in Beijing, who previously worked for the International Monetary Fund"

China International Capital Corp (CICC; 1995- ; 香港上市): "作为中国第一家中外合资投资银行，中国国际金融股份有限公司（中金 [公司]）"
(e) "Farmers can now rent out their land-use rights and, in some parts of the country, can also use them as collateral for loans. * * * outright sales are still banned. * * * One [challenge China faces] is to boost the country's food production and reduce reliance on [agricultural]  imports, which more than tripled in the past decade to $110.6 billion last year. * * * The average plot size per rural worker is about 1.2 acres in China, compared with 180 acres in the US and 385 acres in Australia, according to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. "

1 acre = 4,047 m2 = 1⁄640 of a square mile
(f) "Agriculture Minister Han Changfu 韩长赋 * * * Liu Ligang 刘利刚, China economist at Citigroup Inc in Hong Kong 花旗環球金融亞洲有限公司, who drew a comparison to former Premier Zhu Rongji's landmark decision in the late 1990s to allow city dwellers to buy homes. That created a real estate industry that, with related activities, contributes about a quarter of gross domestic product, estimates UBS AG."